Befriending a Fox
by Ale of Dreams
Summary: Kurama feels his old friend and steals the jewel from Kagome, eventually agreeing to help her bring rest to his friend. This focuses on the relationships he develops, and follows Kagome's point of view. Warnings: Long chapters, Yaoi suggested (Kurama/Sesshomaru), Talking Heads, INCOMPLETE
1. Meeting Kurama

This is my first Inuyasha Yu Yu Hakusho crossover. It's not completely written yet, but I'm going to try to churn it out before the end of November. A couple warnings, I do have a relationship between Kurama and Sesshomaru sometime in the middle-verse between Present and Past. I will probably write that story eventually, if I get around to it.

Warnings:

There is yaoi hinted at, but this story is not about that. Sesshomaru may not even make a real appearance, and if he does, it's going to only be because we're following Kagome.

This story is mostly focused on talking instead of action, so yes, it has talking head syndrome. I started this a while ago so I'll be trying to fix this eventually, but for now it is what it is. The later chapters will probably be better than these ones.

There's a lot of info dumping.

The chapters are kinda long.

I own nothing. - This will probably be the last time I say this, so just assume it's applicable for everything in this story, thank you.

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The sun was bright, and glittered into the window like a thousand shimmering angels bathed the room with their grace. The black haired priestess merely smiled as she sat up in her bed, more than happy about her day, her tank top ruffled from her night of tossing and turning, but the night was gone. Today was a new day, a bright and happy warm day, the summer was long and school was out for a time, so she could finally get back to work in the feudal era and actually make some progress, maybe get a few more jewel shards and put the rest of the thing together. That would be wonderful.

She'd packed everything last night, so all she had to do was jump in the shower, double check her stocks, then be off to the past in record time. Her mother would undoubtedly have breakfast ready and on the table by the time she was out of the shower and if no one interrupted her, she would be out of there before Inuyasha could complain about her tardiness.

Kagome nearly skipped to the bathroom leaving a stunned, groggy Souta in the hall. She shut the door and locked it letting the boy produce a groan of complaint as she turned on the hot water for her shower. It didn't take long to wiggle out of her night clothes, but when her hand grasped for the little bottle on her neck, it didn't connect. She frowned and looked in the mirror staring at her bare neck in pure shock. A line from where the shards leather strap had been lay as merely a tan line now, dipping down to between her breasts where the bottle lay for cushioning and safe keeping.

Her heart stopped, someone had the bottle, that was the only explanation, It had never fallen off at night before, never. She felt her heart pick up as she realized something else, she'd been robbed in her own room, at night, while fast asleep in her revealing pajamas. A shriek filled the shrine scaring off the birds from their early morning romp searching for worms. They fled from the sacred tree so fast that they barely avoided each other, and the humans on the shrine were all dead awake within moments, and running to the bathroom.

"Kagome!" Souta called as he banged on the door. "Kagome are you alright!"

"Souta move aside, go back to your room," Her mother's voice roused, "Kagome! Are you okay in there?"

"Y-yeah Mom, I'm fine, just shocked."

"What's wrong dear?" She asked. "Can I come in?"

"N-no! It's okay, it's okay. I just saw a spider!" She called back wondering if she should tell them or not. Inuyasha would come and get her right? He had to, right? He would get impatient and then he could find out who took the necklace, as long as their scent didn't fade away before he got there. She looked back at her clothes, skeptical and nervous, she would have to preserve the smell somehow. "I'm just going to take my shower, okay mom?"

"Alright sweetie, but if you see another spider please don't scream."

"I'll try mom!" Kagome shook her head. Surely she was mistaken, surely the jewels couldn't have gone too far away. She would just have to search them out and if someone did steal them, she'd have to get them back.

As she finished up her shower she went to her room and searched for the jewel shards there first, she didn't find any trace of them, which was probably why she didn't notice they were gone. Out of sight out of mind, "Damn it." She changed into street clothes and began trying to figure out when they jewels could have been taken other than last night while she slept, but she always checked, it was habit even with none.

"Mom! I'm going out for a while! If Inuyasha comes give him a cap, and tell him to find me, okay?"

"Alright dear! You be safe!"

"I will!" With that she was off. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs closing her eyes focusing on the jewel shards just like in the past. She didn't sense anything for a while until her senses picked up on a rather far trace. She groaned but strengthened her long skirt and trudged towards the source. It took a trolley ride to the other side of town and a bus ride towards suburbs to finally feel the shards closing in, but as she reached the suburbs, the shards got closer, fast. Kagome nearly bolted to the back of the bus as she saw the one holding the shards at the bus stop. She hid herself behind a few seats getting a strange look from the person next to her and the man getting off. As the bus headed back into town, the red head with her jewel shards didn't seem to notice her. She sure hoped he didn't notice her at least. He had her jewel shards in his pocket with his hand probably around them, impossible to steal them back, she'd have to confront him, but the boy looked intimidating somehow.

He didn't wear anything intimidating and although she could tell he had power, and lots of it, she had no idea how he had gotten the shards. He felt human even if his power seemed to somehow contradict that. She waited for him to get off the bus, and waited, until finally near the local strip of official buildings, he disembarked. She rolled her eyes, probably going to a hearing. She waited a street before getting off only to find him headed her way? She spun around as he crossed the cross walk and their eyes caught. He smiled with a bright grin and gave her a look that made her feel like she should be ashamed of something.

Kagome stood strong and squared herself drawing her purification powers to her hands. She had no idea what he was, but he deserved a good slap for trying to shame her into giving up her jewels. They were hers by all rights since she was the reincarnation of the keeper of the Jewel of Four Souls. Long title, yes, but it still made it her jewels!

"Hello there little, priestess? My, you are a priestess," that almost wiped the grin off his face, almost. "Why is it you were following me?"

"You have my jewel shards, hand them over or I will give you one hell of a slap and you won't forget it."

"Surely we can talk in a more civil manner in this day and age," the red head remarked, his green eyes glistening with delight as he kept his distance from her. "Come, let's go into that dark dank ally where people are mugged constantly to talk this over. There is some misunderstanding!"

"There is no misunderstanding. I had those jewels last night before I went to bed, I woke up and they were gone and now they are in your possession!"

"Where are they?" The man questioned holding up his hands, pockets suddenly turned out and looking innocent as can be.

Kagome studied him before grabbing his sleeve almost like unlocking a vault of damage, energy, and pain on the creature. His energy soared into an erratic dance and his shirt burned straight through when he cried out in pain.

The demon yanked his arm free before blinking and dropping his hand catching the shards. "Very good priestess, you can see Midoriko's Jewel, I am impressed!" He hissed as he nursed his arm blowing on it and drawing his energy back under control. She could see the demonic energy swarming around him in waves of a silver tail and ears.

"You're a demon," Kagome remarked as she stumbled back. "What's a demon doing here? Now!"

"What do you mean by that!" the demon requested as he moved towards the ally. She followed after him in curiosity and shock until finally they were alone. The fox demon leaned against the wall and gently huffed on his wound before pulling a seed out of his hair and shakily applying a leaf that came from the plant.

"Sorry," she muttered. "Look, I need the shards back."

"I have questions first and you won't be able to touch me again," he hissed.

"Kurama! Kurama what happened buddy!" Kuwabara ran into the ally and grabbed his friend's shoulders examining his arm, "Man! Look at that burn!"

"Purification energy," Kurama nodded to the female across the way. "She's a priestess."

"What?" Kuwabara turned and looked at her. "Oh! Hi there, the name's Kazuma Kuwabara." He held out his hand to her.

Kagome reached out even with her purification energy and shook hands with him, she was still high on defense with the fox in the ally. "Hi, I'm Kagome Higurashi. Who's your friend?" she asked begrudgingly.

"Him? Kurama."

"Kurama what?"

"Title's Youko." Kurama replied.

"Oh, oh right, wait, when did they have titles?"

"A long time ago Kuwabara, a long time ago," Kurama assured him.

"Kurama, and you're a...?"

"Demon, gah, you already figured that out," Kurama snapped as he swallowed more pain. She'd somehow left a trace of her energy behind.

Kuwabara blinked and looked at Kurama's arm, then at the girl, then back to the throbbing energy around Kurama's arm that was nearly making the fox scream in pain. He reached out and shoved his own energy through it, covering the foxes skin with his large hand.

Kurama panted hard and leaned into his friend glaring at the woman, "Tricky, miko, tricky." Kuwabara's energy almost encased Kurama fully as the male slipped himself under the bigger male's arm for support. "You sounded surprised that I was a demon little priestess," Kurama demanded.

"I was! There aren't any demons in this time, are there?"

"You didn't know there were demons now? What do you mean 'now'?" Kuwabara questioned picking up quickly in the setting. "You attacked Kurama?" He asked as he glanced at the now growing leaf. Kurama had the plant before for the leaf, but the leaf wasn't growing on his wound, like he couldn't grow it there.

"I just grabbed his arm."

"You had your energy activated." Kurama growled as he held his arm close to his chest cradling it and keeping his shoulder against Kuwabara's side. "Of course it burned me, my energy's demonic even if this body is human and I had my energy up on guard."

"Well you still stole those jewels from me!"

"This is Midoriko's jewel's shards, not yours."

"Midoriko's been dead for years. That's how those jewels came to be, she's dead."

"Midoriko may be dead but she knew what she was doing and left them for a guard, and you are no guard, you're a priestess."

"No, you're wrong I am the guard for Midoriko's jewel, that's how the jewel came to my possession to begin with."

"Don't you understand girl, this jewel is Midoriko's legacy, it is her, and she is to be respected! You shattered it!" He growled angrily at Kagome, still tucked under Kuwabara's protective energy. "I can feel your energy through these shards at the breaks, it was your energy that shattered her jewel and that is not respecting her properly."

"Whoa, whoa, Kurama slow down; calm down, and slow down," Kuwabara demanded as he supported his friend. "Kagome, can we go somewhere less dark, dank, and spooky to talk this out? I mean talk too, not yell and argue. I'll mediate," he offered.

Kagome nodded, "Yeah, let's go to the coffee shop across form the library,"

"You lead," Kurama snapped.

Kuwabara sighed and shook his head before turning and dragging the fox with him, "Kurama, you're not dictating this, I am, come on Kagome."

"Coming," Kagome replied as she strolled behind them.

Kurama struggled and pulled his arm away but as soon as it was out of Kuwabara's powerful hand, he yelped and grabbed it himself. Kuwabara reached out and covered his burn again, dragging him along.

It didn't take long to get to the coffee shop, but it took a while to order. Kuwabara and Kagome had a spat about who should actually pay for what, and in the end Kurama just paid for the group considering he was at the crux of the matter. As they took their seats, Kurama sat with his burned arm closest to Kuwabara on the inside of the booth. Kagome sat across from the two of them.

"Kurama, give me the shards," Kuwabara demanded.

Kurama reluctantly pulled out the little bottle and put it in Kuwabara's hand.

"Good, now Kagome, you say these shards are yours, care to explain what happened?"

"I carry around the jewel shards collecting them in the past to get the jewel whole again. It broke on accident after a crow demon ate the jewel. I ended up using his foot to kill the guy, but the arrow hit the jewel because of the method."

"No shit, a demon's body will regenerate because of the soul so anything from the demon would go to the jewel, not the body," Kurama scolded.

"Shut up Kurama, drink your drink."

Kurama visibly frowned before letting off a sigh and finally settling in to what was going on with things out of his control.

"So you broke the jewel and you're gathering the shards. That makes sense, but what did you mean about the past?"

"Uh, well the jewel activated a time travel system. You see, when I was growing up I had the jewel in my body, and I fell down the ancient well on my family's shrine, going back to the past 50 years after the jewel was burned with Kikyo's body."

"And what time is that?"

"500 years ago."

That had Kurama watching her intently, curiously, but intently. He didn't seem nearly as upset with her as he had been. He still had a firm interest in her, although now it seemed as though his interest spawned from another source.

"Wow, okay." Kuwabara on the other hand, just tired to digest it all.

"So the shards give you the time travel ability?" Kurama questioned.

Kagome nodded, "And that's why it's imperative I get them back. You took them from me last night while I was sleeping."

"They're Midoriko," Kurama reasoned yet again.

"Kurama, who's Midoriko?"

"She was a..." Kurama frowned and glanced down at his drink playing with the cup with his good arm. "She was a friend I guess. The last I heard of her before the jewel was that she traveled with Kilala to defend the humans from the demons under King Enma's maddening curse. We ran into each other quite often actually."

Kagome sat there with her eyes opened wide as she stared at him in confusion. She frowned and continued to listen to the fox as she tried to figure out how he knew about Kilala. Surly it couldn't be the same Kilala, maybe that was a common name?

"That doesn't explain much."

"She was a powerful priestess who had a kind heart to demons, but waged war against the negative world, not just the demon's negativity either, but all world negativity. She was basically Yukina with a bite, and a solid understanding of the evil in the world."

"Yukina can bite," Kuwabara defended.

"I don't doubt it, but she chooses to ignore the evil where Midoriko took it on. When Midoriko died, I heard a rumor that Kilala was to protect the jewel, it appears that the twin tail couldn't handle it, if it ended up in the hands of the priests," Kurama nearly snapped, but he retained his calm demeanor.

Kagome decided now was the time to pop the question. "I have a friend named Kilala. She was living with a demon slayer village which was killed off by Naraku. It couldn't be the same one, could it?" she asked.

Kurama watched the woman with a considering stare, "It may be the same Kilala. That seems like something she would do. Is she still letting people ride her?"

Kagome nodded.

Kurama nodded in return, "Yes, that's her alright. She's the only twin tail I've ever known to let someone ride them," he shook his head in something of dismay. "After Midoriko died Demon World began to grow. Midoriko was the first spirit detective in the time," Kurama told Kuwabara.

"So what's your beef about the shards?"

"Midoriko was a strong, respected woman who has been gone for over 500 years Kuwabara, I am going to protect my friend's soul."

"Her soul?"

"Yes, her soul is in that jewel, that's how the jewel was made. Her life energy, her soul, her purification energy, her spirit energy, it's all in that broken jewel waging war against all the corrupt beings she took with her."

"You mean it's not just demons? When we learned about the jewel's maker, we though it was just demons she fought."

"No, Midoriko's jewel was not made just by the attack of demons, but humans as well." Kurama whispered softly.

"Kilala doesn't have a problem with me finding the jewel shards on my own. I'm sure she can sense the same thing you can, so if she doesn't care, why should you?" Kagome challenged.

"I held Midoriko as a very close friend. Kilala helped Midoriko, sure, but she…" His eyes fell on the shards and a look of sadness and longing passed through his face, his energy, "She was more than just someone to fight beside."

"Come on Kurama, you stole from a human."

"What, like that's rare!" Kurama snapped. "I was no angle in Demon World, you know that Kuwabara. Yes, I stole the jewels from Kagome, but I'll be damned if I let her have them again. Do you see what she's got them in? Some glass jar! Midoriko's soul is scattered all over Human World to be used by corrupt individuals and sold to do who knows what! I will not stand for my friend's soul to be used like this!"

"Then where are you? Five hundred years ago Kurama, where are you?" Kuwabara asked bluntly as he looked at the shards, and then at his red haired friend.

Kurama blinked and thought back calculating the date and the time. He shook his head and stared down at his hands. "I was in Demon World. With Midoriko dead, I left."

"So you terrorized Demon World for five hundred years?"

"Over," he corrected.

"No wonder you're their boogie man."

"Demon World?" Kagome questioned.

"Yeah, there are other planes of life that lives beside ours called Demon World, Spirit World, and the Netherworld."

"So you lived through Demon World's creation?"

Kurama nodded "Yes. This is aside the point though. You shattering her jewel and now you are flaunting them about in this jar!" He snapped.

"How would you suggest I keep the jewels?"

"Not in a trophy case, and you're not getting them back."

"Kurama! They're her responsibility. Put up with it!"

"Kuwabara, Midoriko was my friend!"

"And you left the jewel in someone else's possession. It was never yours!"

"It is mine now."

"It is not, you stole it."

"What must I do to make you see reason Kuwabara! I'm not giving them back to her! If you give them back to her, I assure you I will just steal them again!"

"You're the one being unreasonable Kurama," Kuwabara replied with a sigh.

"You cannot stop me," Kurama growled.

"I can. I'll burn your arm off," Kagome replied sipping her drink.

Kurama glared at her, an expression unusual for the calm and collected fox. The torrential downpour of emotions that washed over his face scaled from absolute fury to the dark pain of defeated betrayal. "Just let me be with her," he finally requested with a sigh. "I just want to be with her for a little while." His eyes shut as the fox sat back and dropped his head.

"How did you even find out about it?"

"Galahad told me he felt her."

"Who?"

"It's the tree on the shrine. He was one of my guards for a long time when I was in Human World and I taught him to contact me whenever he saw Midoriko so I could keep an eye on her, but of course trees can't see so I enhanced him so he could feel her energy."

"You mean the sacred tree on our shrine is a demon's tree!" Kagome shrieked in fear.

"Sacred? It's just a tree! I don't even consider them sacred. They're royal ass holes most of the time."

"Kurama, why have you never mentioned trees talking before?"

"Because I didn't want Yusuke to ask me what's up Hiei's skirt," Kurama replied sarcastically.

Kuwabara blinked, then frowned, then blinked again and gave Kurama a confused look. "Fox, you've got too much going on in that brain of yours today."

"She's not here anymore Kurama, she's gone," Kagome confronted with a shake of her head, she didn't know who these characters were, but she didn't want to.

"No, her soul is in those shards, just…"

"Why didn't you pursue this before? I've had the jewel for a while! You could have come to me at any point and searched them out."

"I couldn't. I wasn't strong enough to hear Galahad at a distance. After that I was too busy with all the shit Koenma had us doing, or you were gone! I never had time to investigate why Galahad thought that Midoriko was near."

"You had five hundred years to get over it fox, she needs the shards to make the jewel whole, shouldn't that be more important to you than just these shards? Your friend's soul belongs together, and it can't get back together without her having the shards."

"I just want time! Stop scolding me for what I never had the power- to face and let me have my wish." Kurama's voice cracked as he spoke. He clutched his eyes shut tightly and balled his hands in his lap.

Kagome sighed and shook her head. "I'm sorry. I can't. The shards are mine and I need to get back to collecting them," Kagome denied.

Kurama growled fierily and glared at the woman as his nose flared and the muscles around it twitched without his control. He nearly split from the shop in a bolting run, but somehow managed to keep it at a determined walk. Kuwabara noticed the man's arm burning some as he left the protection of his friend.

Kuwabara dropped his head and shook it as he rolled the shards towards Kagome. "I don't really have anything I can say to justify him. I don't know why he's acting like this. It's not like him at all." Kuwabara watched the retreating figure of the fox until he was out of view.

"What's he generally like?" Kagome put the necklace on and continued drinking.

"Generally? Well he's usually calm and collected. He tends to be the one who plans things out and sits and waits rather than jumping on something like this. Man, I haven't heard of him stealing anything since he got caught last time either."

"What happened last time?" Kagome questioned feeling mildly intrigued to know that the irate man she had just witnessed nearly cry was typically calm and collected.

"He stole a mirror from Spirit World that could grant one wish for a price. Urameshi told me about it. He stole the mirror to use it for his mom. She was ill and dyeing. He wished for her to live a good life knowing that the exchange was his life. He would have died that night if Yusuke hadn't jumped in and saved his ass."

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like this case in the least, unless Midoriko was the love of his life or something like that."

"It might be something like that. Kurama's really old. In retrospect, we don't really know much about him." Kuwabara's eyes followed Kurama's energy as the man fumed down the streets until he curled up in an ally and calmed himself down, out of Kagome's range and almost out of where Kuwabara could feel him.

"I thought he was your friend?" Kagome questioned.

"Well, yeah, we're buddies but you can't just go asking about shit like that. I mean, he died, got put in a human body, and here he is, so how are we supposed to bring up the past?" Kuwabara remarked, "Plus he's devilishly manipulative and has a quick wit. If he doesn't want to say something, he's not going to say it, and he's never wanted to talk about his past to any of us."

"That sounds kind of lonely, having all that past and no one to talk about it with." Kagome remarked as she looked away from the guy and down at the shards. "I know when I'm here I always feel upset because I don't have anyone I can share my adventures with, aside from my family. Has he ever acted weird like this before?"

"Not like this. Sometimes he'll get a bit tipsy and we can't get the reason why out of him, but never something like this. We always figured it was stress before, but maybe it was something else."

"Does he typically seem stressed?"

"Not at all, but something's got to be eating at you after living all those years. He doesn't really have anyone who's with him. The one guy who knew him before and knows him now was someone he tried to have killed, and then there's Hiei, who actually just knew of him, and was his partner during the theft."

"Hey, I actually do need to get going, so maybe if we can get in contact some other time we can talk about it, but right now I was supposed to be back in time with them finding more of these shards."

"Yeah, sure thing." Kuwabara pulled out a pen and scribbled on a napkin his address and phone number. "Give me a call if you want to get together or something. Maybe you could see Kurama when he's normal."

"I doubt his normal side is one I'll ever see."

Kuwabara let off a repressed sigh and got up, more than willing to leave. There wasn't a real point in staying if there was no one to see. He'd go find Kurama and see how he was holding up.

Kagome on the other hand went her separate way wanting to head back in time to get back in her own flow of things.


	2. Home Again

Nearly a month passed since Kagome had been able to go home, and she was more than apprehensive about actually going back to her own time. It seemed so much safer in the past, even with Naraku breathing down their necks. She just didn't want to deal with the fox and all of his wildness. He was more of a weight on her mind than Shippo ever had been.

"Inuyasha, is there such thing as Demon World?"

Inuyasha frowned at the question and let his mind mull it over, "I don't know, you'd have to ask a demon. If there is a Demon World it would explain the sudden drop in demons though."

"What do you mean?"

"Well when I was growing up, it always seemed like there were more demons than humans, now the humans basically are in their villages and left alone by the demons. It's almost like the demons stopped having a need to prey on the humans or something."

"I wonder what it's like there," she mused.

"In Demon World? Who knows," Sango tugged, "Why is it you suddenly thought of demons having their own world Kagome?"

"Well, do you promise not to get mad?" she asked softly.

"Of course we promise not to get mad at you Kagome, you're our friend," Miroku chided.

"I met a demon in my time."

The entire group stopped dead in their tracks and stared at her. Kagome shuffled her feet around a little, not wanting to actually say it again or admit what she said.

"How?" Inuyasha finally asked, "I went there and I didn't feel any demons at all."

"Well apparently they all went to Demon World. He said that Demon World is in this time too, but that it wasn't really that occupied yet or something. I didn't really understand it that well."

"Do you think any of the shards could be in Demon World?" Sango questioned.

"No, I doubt any of them would stay there if they went to Demon World."

"What did this demon want? Was he after the shards?"

Kagome sighed and shrugged, "He was after his friend's soul, not the shards."

"He must have been pretty old if he was still alive and had lived when Midoriko was around," Sango remarked.

"Yeah. He was really old," Kagome agreed. "He was friends with a human though, and he seemed okay once he was calmer."

"Are you sure he didn't make up the shit about wanting the shards for his friend?"

"To feel her Inuyasha, I'm sure."

"How about I go meet him to be sure," Inuyasha recommended watching her with a solid stare. "If you're in danger in your world too, then you need to be prepared. This guy's the first to approach you, so let me meet him and see what's up."

Kagome nodded "I said something because I need to head back to my time. Just promise me you won't fight him if he doesn't fight you."

Inuyasha nodded, "When do you need to be there?"

"Soon, can we borrow Kilala? We'll meet you back at town, but if I can get there a little early then I can study for my exams before I have to take them."

Sango nodded and held out her arm for Kilala to go to Kagome. Kagome smiled and gently took the cat petting her. "Kilala, I met Youko Kurama, he's in Demon World here," she told the cat as the little kitten transformed and she got on her back. Inuyasha and Kilala took off leaving Sango, Miroku and Shippo to travel back to the town on their own.

"So what's this guy like?" Inuyasha asked as they headed to the time portal. "Is he big?"

"Not particularly, no. He's really average in size and weight, but he's got bright red hair. It's really strange to see that bright hair in my time."

"No kidding, but your time doesn't have that many demons. He said they were all in Demon World. Maybe all the color was from that," Inuyasha suggested.

"Maybe," Kagome gathered up her bag as Kilala changed back into her small form. Inuyasha waited as she got her bag situated on her shoulders from his grasp and then hopped down the well without any pretense. Inuyasha followed suit.

When they got out of the well Inuyasha took a deep breath trying to get his ground back, but he just shook his head, "There's too much pollution here. I can't tell where things are as good as back home."

"It's okay Inuyasha, I can tell who's not normal to some extent when I'm here. Last time he stole the shards at night, so he might not show up for you to check out," Kagome prayed silently that she was right. As they left the grounds and headed back into the house, she realized that wasn't going to be the case.

"Mom?" She called cautiously as she headed into the house. Inuyasha stayed close to her looking around and trying to get the scents right.

Her cat meowed loudly as he darted towards the door from the living room. "Buyo! Grandpa!" Kagome cried out as she chased after the cat, "Grandpa Buyo's got out!" She called into the house before chasing after the cat. Inuyasha headed off the creature and scooped it up under his arm as Kagome made it outside towards the steps to the shrine. She sighed and took him from Inuyasha. "Thank you Inuyasha. Where's my family? Souta, Grandpa, Mom, none of them are answering me," she asked cautiously.

"They could just be out," Inuyasha offered wrapping an arm over her shoulder as he headed back towards the house. He began to search out their locations for himself and shook his head, "They left, but it seems like they did that out of their own free will."

Kagome sighed and kicked the door shut setting down the fat calico as she headed for the kitchen. "I wonder where they went," she looked around for some clue, but found nothing to her advantage. Shaking her head she gave Inuyasha a careful smile, "How about I get you set up watching TV and I'll do my studying while we wait for them to come home, alright?"

Inuyasha huffed, "I can't investigate the demons in your time if we just stay here Kagome, we need to go find them to see what type of a threat they pose."

Kagome frowned at that and shook her head, "I don't want you fighting here Inuyasha, there are so many things that could go wrong if you fought here!" she fought.

"Just get that demon you said you knew here. Didn't he leave some way for you to contact him? Where's he live? We can just go to his town and ask him what's up with this world," Inuyasha solved.

"He's in this town Inuyasha," Kagome replied shaking her head, "It's too big to find him, but I can call Kuwabara, he was his friend."

"Good! Go call him, if they're traveling together than they'll both come."

"Right," Kagome frowned but shook her head.

Heading up the stairs with the big yellow bag over her shoulder to empty out the laundry and so forth in her room, she ended up shuffling things around searching for the napkin she'd left on her desk. Eventually, she found it tucked inside an address book to be filled out later and flipped it open. Grabbing the phone she dialed the number and flopped down beginning to empty out her bag with the phone tucked between her shoulder and cheek. It seemed to ring for eternity.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this Kuwabara's residence?"

"This is the Kuwabara's residence, yes, who're you looking for?"

"What? Uh Kuwabara?"

"Well that's our last name girlie, are you looking for a carrot top?"

"Yes! Yes, Oh I'm sorry. He just introduced himself as Kuwabara."

"Yeah," The line went quiet for a while as she heard yelling off in the distance.

After lots of raddling and crashing with scolding, the phone gained a voice again, "Hello? Who's this?"

"Kagome Higurashi, I met you with Kurama?"

"Oh! The priestess, hey, nice to hear from you. Man, it's been what? Three weeks?"

"A month, look, I have someone with me who would like to meet Kurama, can you get a hold of him for me? I'd like it if you came too."

"Uhh, shit, well I know how you can get a hold of Kurama, but I don't think he's home right now. Just go ask the tree for him. That should work. Where do you live? He might beat me there,"

"I live on the Higurashi Shrine on 48th street 48280, up the stairs."

"Oh! I'm kind of close to that, I'll be over in a little, just hang tight by the tree."

"Alright, I'll see you soon," She offered.

"Yeah, bye."

"Bye."

Kagome sighed as she dropped the last bit of clothing in a pile for the wash. She'd have to deal with that later, but for now, she wanted her books. Grabbing her hardest subject, science, she headed down the stairs to find Inuyasha watching Buyo. She shook her head with a chuckle and slipped outside.

Looking at the tree with a curious stare she only could shake her head at the irony of the tree being demonic. So much had revolved around it, and it wasn't natural like they had thought. "I need to see Kurama. Can you get him for me?" She asked the tree stepping up close to it and putting her hands on the bark.

A sense of calm washed over her and she smiled at the feeling.

"Kagome? Why are you out here?" Inuyasha questioned as he came out the door, shutting it before Buyo could escape. He came over to her and pulled her away from the tree into the open reception area of her family's shrine before letting her go. "Did you get a hold of that guy?"

"Yeah, they're on their way." She replied simply.

"What's this?" he asked as he picked up her science book from the bench near the tree, "Isn't this one of your study books?"

"Yeah, I need to study. Go get your hat, it's on my desk," she suggested, gesturing towards her cracked window.

Inuyasha growled some and hopped up into her window grabbing the hat before returning, only to find Kagome sitting on the bench reading the book. Putting the hat on Inuyasha continued to pay close attention to their surroundings, eventually going over to the entrance to wait, "Kagome, there's someone coming," he called after nearly half an hour had passed. He was so intent staring down the stares at the new source of interest that he didn't notice the new form leaning against the house. "I don't think it's him, it feels human." Inuyasha remarked looking over towards Kagome who sat on the bench.

Kagome was ignorant as well while she studied.

"Such gall for a little priestess, calling out for me using my tool," Kurama growled. "Do you even know how much power I give this tree? Do you know what I can do with it?" he growled as he slipped towards the tree, "And yet you are calmed by it, like a demons presence soothes you suddenly," he growled.

Inuyasha came close to Kagome and slipped between the two of them, watching the demon carefully, "I can't feel you," Inuyasha offered with a frown.

Kurama blinked and stopped in his glare looking more towards the dog, "Take off the hat," he snapped.

"God, put it on, take it off, put it on," Inuyasha growled pulling it off and dropping it to the side. He cracked his fingers and glared at the fox, "What the hell are you doing here? What are you?"

"I'm strong. I'm out of your league, pup. What is your heritage?"

Inuyasha scoffed and slipped farther into his defensive stance.

"We can't fight here, it's too public." Kurama told the demon, holding up a hand, "You're from the past right? Back when human world was with demons? Well imagine you're in the capital right now. That's how you're supposed to be acting."

"The damn capital tries to kill me, I am acting like I'm in the capital," Inuyasha growled in response.

"Right, half demons." Kurama shook his head and sighed, "Do you want my ball? Will that make you feel better little pup?"

"You're a fox?" Inuyasha's face skewered up.

Kurama just shrugged with a tip of his head, "Close." Kurama rolled his wrist a few times and then brought his fingers together in a point. A volleyball sized blue ball appeared on his fingers. He bounced it a few times before catching it, "You know what this means, you're from that time. Promise to give it back when we're done with our conversation, and you can have it for a little while."

"Kurama! Kurama!" Kuwabara huffed, "Kurama what the hell are you doing? Whoa! Kagome get away from him!" Kuwabara clattered up the stairs.

"Stop!" Kurama snapped glaring at the boy. "He's no threat to her."

Kagome looked between the three boys now and just sighed shaking her head. "Inuyasha, if it's a peace offering, just accept it," She schooled him, "It's not like he can do much anyway, I can burn him with my energy and that's discrete enough to work, plus this guy here can help keep him under hand."

"Fine, I don't need your ball but I need to know what the hell is going on!" Inuyasha demanded as he slipped between Kuwabara, Kurama, and Kagome.

"Why? Are you scared? Do you fear for her life?" Kurama questioned as he moved closer, examining the dog. "She's in Human World, why would you fear for her in Human World in this time? Demons can't fight here."

"Kurama, what's with the ball?"

Kurama just shook his head and nodded towards Inuyasha, "What's with this, is a better question. This dog passed through the time portal without any shards. He hasn't touched them in a long time. I'm not sure if he's ever touched these shards at all."

Kagome's hand went to her neck only for the girl to yelp in fear and glare at Kurama, "Oh you little pest you give them back!"

Inuyasha growled and turned on Kurama again.

Kurama held up his hands in a mischievous smile, ball vanishing. "Do I really have them? Huh?" He spun for the girl. "Sure, I took them, but where are they?" he asked with a bright grin on his face. "You should have taken the ball, pup."

"Kurama!" Kuwabara scolded heading towards the fox.

Kurama turned and frowned, "Look, I'll give them back when we leave, I just want them for a time," he pleaded again.

Inuyasha pulled out his sword and leveled a glare on the fox, "I'll just chop you to bits until I get them back!" Inuyasha charged.

After nearly ten evasions of both Kuwabara and Inuyasha, Kurama came to rest up in Kagome's window. "Stop it! Both of you! I'm not giving them back. I made that mistake once. I'm not handing them over until I'm ready, but I won't leave the shrine."

"Fine! Fine! Keep them until you leave the shrine!" Kagome called. She grabbed Inuyasha's arm, quickly seeing how this was playing out, "But get off my window! You were in my room enough you pesky fox!"

Kurama's eyes thinned for a moment as he seemed to consider that before slipping down to the ground and heading to the bench, "General Science? Shouldn't you be in something higher," he inquired.

"Hey! I'm the one with questions."

Kurama shook his head and waved Inuyasha off before sending a pleading look to Kuwabara. "I've already explained what I can."

"Fine, I'll answer your questions, but what's your name? I'm Kazuma Kuwabara." He held out his hand to the demon.

Inuyasha frowned but eventually shook hands, "Inuyasha."

Kurama gave Kagome an expectant stare.

"Yeah, I'm supposed to be in something higher but I suck at General Science so I have to take it until I can pass."

"You're out in General Science all the time, what could possibly be the problem?"

"Names, and understanding some of the subjects," Kagome admitted shaking her head. "I don't see why you want to know this though, Kurama. I mean, what interest do you have in my education?"

"Me? None, I have a job," Kurama shrugged, "So why is it that you called? Surely you didn't call me to take the shards."

"You're right, I didn't call you to take the shards. I called you because Inuyasha wanted to meet you. He's unsure about my safety in my own time now and he wanted to see what the threat was like."

Kurama glanced towards the dog demon and shook his head, "He doesn't seem like he understands the world."

"I suppose he doesn't, but he tries. He's really sweet actually."

"I'm sure. Kagome, there's another reason, isn't there?"

Kagome just nodded but shifted around somewhat nervous about actually speaking up. "Well, I was wondering if you would be interested in trying to go back in the past to help us collect the shards, you see, we've got this enemy named Naraku who we've been fighting for a while now, and he's just too strong for us to take out," Kagome complained, "We've been having a really rough time with him ever since the entire thing started, and maybe some more muscle is exactly what we need."

"Muscle? Is that all I am to you?" the red head admonished.

Kagome chuckled. "Look, will you think about it? I've been thinking about it for the past month and you seem like you would fit in. I mean, Kilala's with us, and we have some of the shards so you would be able to be near her, plus it would be nice to have someone who understood my time."

Kurama frowned as he considered it, "The main problem would be if I could actually go. I exist in the past. I don't know all the rules of time travel, but I do believe not overlapping is a law."

"I have two souls in the past too. Kikyo is who I used to be."

"Could we see if it's possible before I agree to anything? I do have a life here."

"Yeah, we can do that. The well is right over there," Kagome gestured towards the well house. "I need a shard to go through the well though, and it would be smart to go through with someone for your first time to see if it works. Inuyasha can go, then you, then me."

"That makes sense." Kurama rose and held out his hand to her. Kagome accepted it and he pulled her to her feet before letting it go. He produced a little leather pouch and dropped the shards she had out of it. Uncorking the jar he took one shard and held it out to her before putting one back in the pouch and heading for Kuwabara and Inuyasha.

"Kurama! He doesn't need one," Kagome exclaimed as she hurried after him. She held onto the shard that she got back as Kurama stopped and looked back at her. He frowned and backed away from her with his lip twitching almost in a growl. "Calm down. I'm not going to take them. Inuyasha, let's see if Kurama can cross times."

"What? Why! That filthy fox belongs here!"

"Inuyasha! We could use his help! He can sense the jewel shards too, so go! We need all the help we can get!" Kagome exclaimed furiously. She pointed towards the well and cautiously, Inuyasha headed back to the well.

"What're we doing this for?" Kuwabara questioned as he eyed the little pouch with the shards that Kurama had.

"She wants to see if I can help them in the past."

"And if you can't?"

"Then I can't. If I can, then I have to decide whether I actually want to or not."

"Kurama, you got to help them if you can get there. They need it! I mean, we needed all the help we could get when we were fighting, and it would have been great to have some extra hands, but we didn't get that. If you can give that to them, then why would you possibly say no?"

"My mother. I don't want her finding anything out."

"Kurama, you're twenty one, you live on your own, and you work for your step dad. I'm sure your mom would understand if you decided to search out one of those foreign colleges that always are recruiting you and explore that venue for a year."

"You're twenty one?" Kagome had stopped in her tracks.

Inuyasha and Kurama both frowned and stopped, "Yes, and?" They looked at her somewhat confused, "Come on Kagome, let's go test this well."


	3. Down and Up

"Kurama! Are you gay?" Kagome asked as she hurried after the man. She grabbed onto his arm making him stop again.

Kurama frowned and carefully freed his arm from her grasp, "I resent you asking me that question, focus." He snapped his fingers above her line of vision before turning and continuing towards the well house.

"What's gay?" Inuyasha asked Kurama cautiously.

"It's describing the sexual preference of a male to only enjoy other males. Lesbian means for a female to sexually prefer females, and bi is for either sex to enjoy either sex. Straight is probably what you're used to, a male enjoying only females, or a female enjoying only males." Kurama explained to the dog before pulling open the shed. "You're bi right?" he questioned the dog.

Inuyasha scoffed and rolled his eyes, "I'm celibate."

"You're also going down first, then I'll follow with Kagome on my tail. What's on the other side?"

"The well, again, but younger."

Kurama frowned. "Go ahead and show me how it's done," Kurama offered gesturing towards the steps down.

Inuyasha huffed and headed down the well. He jumped into the hole and Kurama stepped forward to watch him fall, but didn't see him. "He's gone," Kurama questioned cautiously. "Seriously? How do you land?"

"On your feet, but it's a soft landing."

Kurama shook his head and chuckled, "That must be nice. Here it goes." Kurama slipped over the edge and hopped down tucking his arms in close.

Kagome heard the well crackle a bit as an echo almost sounded through the wood.

Kuwabara grabbed Kagome and backed her out of the well house onto solid ground as the place snapped with energy. "His energy's going erratic! We need to stay back!" Kuwabara cautioned. "I think he just hit the bottom,"

"He has a shard though, he should go through. He didn't sound like he hit the bottom, it just sounded like something smacked the walls," Kagome countered. She let out a shriek as an energy spike cracked out of the door. Kuwabara pulled her out of the way of the shock and the area seemed to still.

Kagome and Kuwabara cautiously entered the well house after that, carefully creaking up the stairs, "Is he through?"

"I don't know," Kagome pulled herself from Kuwabara's grasp and hurried to the well. When she saw no one in the bottom, she jumped over herself.

"Kagome!" Kuwabara exclaimed in fear, but the girl was gone.

Going through the mists of time Kagome looked around for signs of Kurama. The energy she'd seen crackling in the well house now crackled through the time spread and she ended up having to avoid a few of them by tucking herself up. When she landed on solid ground, she landed on a body. With a yelp and stumbling, Kagome got off of the arm, but it wasn't Kurama lay in the bottom of the well.

The long silver hair that graced the creature could almost be described as more delicate than Sesshomaru's, but the creature had ears and a tail like Inuyasha. "Inuyasha! Is this Kurama?" She called up in question.

"I don't know. Can you wake him up?" Inuyasha asked from the top of the well. "If I jump down I'll have to hang on to the wall so I don't go back through time."

"I'll try."

Kagome knelt by the silver haired creature and gently pulled him up so he lay against the wall. She checked his temperature, and checked for injuries overall before tapping his cheek, "Kurama, Kurama wake up, Kurama!" Kagome called getting louder.

An ear twitched to life as the face scrunched together and slowly pealed itself open to greet the day. He jumped a little when he noticed Kagome so close, but his head banged against the hard stone wall and he ended up grabbing that instead. After lots of deep frowns and cautiously looking around, the creature began to recognize what was going on, "So I'm here, but I have to be in my…" His eyes shut as he got his first good breath of air. "Mmm, it's like heaven." Kagome could almost hear the rumbling of his throat as he relaxed against the wall.

"We need to get out of the well," Kagome told the demon.

Kurama glanced around and nodded reaching out with his hand. Several of the vibrant vines around the edges of the walls grew thicker and more plentiful as he graced them with his energy. "Come on then, get on," He offered her his back.

Kagome crawled onto his back and the strong fox quickly scaled the deep well. Once out, he let Kagome down before just sitting on the edge of the well and taking several long deep breaths.

"Ah, it smells like god's smiling," Kurama nearly purred.

"So will you do it?"

"What?" Kurama frowned and looked up at Kagome confused.

"Be with us back in time," Kagome reminded.

"Oh, come here and help you find Midoriko, sure." Kurama's eyes shut again as he continued to just take deep breaths of fresh air. After a particularly long breath, he shivered in delight and began to take in his surroundings. "I forgot how good it was."

"Well stop day dreaming, we have to get back to my time to study. I do have a test soon and I need to get to work," Kagome remarked as she got on the edge of the well to hop back down again. Kurama wrapped an arm around her waist stopping her from going just yet. "What?"

"I'm not sure what's going to happen when I return, I died between the two times so I may or may not die again while going back through time. When you go, please get out of the well quickly, and out of the well house. I'll follow after five minutes. Inuyasha, judging by the condition I was in when I came here, would you mind following after about ten minutes from when I jumped in to make sure I get out of the well okay?"

Inuyasha just nodded and Kurama let Kagome go.

The girl slipped off of the well and into the split in time Kurama just went back to enjoying the moments he had in the fresh air while Inuyasha approached and sat by the side of the well with the new friend. They remained silent until Kurama turned around and dangled his feet into the well. "Stand back please. When I came, my energy went sporadic."

Inuyasha just nodded and left the well letting Kurama drop on his own.

Kagome watched from the tree as she waited for Inuyasha and Kurama to appear from the well house. She told Kuwabara what happened and he had agreed that standing back would only be the wise thing to do. As the five minutes were up, Kagome got tense.

Kagome eyed the well cautiously as she heard the crackling of Kurama's energy return, but it wasn't the same as before. Now it seemed to merely surge instead of making an attack on its own. Only a few minutes later, Inuyasha left the building with a badly beaten fox in his arms. The creature arched and grabbed at the fox as the long silver hair pooled out of Inuyasha's arms. He rushed the creature to Kagome watching her nervously as she directed him to lay Kurama on the bench.

"What happened?"

"He screamed when he struck the bottom so I followed sooner and this is what I found," Inuyasha explained.

"Kurama! Kurama buddy!" Kuwabara called as he went to Kurama's other side. His eyes widened as he noticed the wound below his shoulder close to his heart. "Oh man, that's what killed him! That shot!" Kuwabara exclaimed as he pushed his hands on the front of the wound trying to stop the bleeding. "He's going to die!"

Kurama's energy whipped around them like a wind and he began to struggle, opening his eyes and pushing off Kuwabara. The larger man fell back on his ass and stared at Kurama with wide eyes as his hair bled red. He yelped and rolled off the bench grabbed his ears as they began to flicker and vanish. Another scream escaped him as his back arched pushing his forehead into the ground.

"He's changing back!" Kuwabara exclaimed. He hurried forward again trying to help somehow, but Kurama bated him away again. His legs tucked in and his arms pushed into his stomach. After a few more minutes he relaxed into a panting mess falling to the side with shaky arms and shutting his eyes.

"Kurama?" Kuwabara asked as he finally was allowed to draw near.

Kagome and Inuyasha stared at the fox in shock from their side of the bench, staying put. As Kuwabara pulled the fox into his arms, Kagome went to check on him. She checked for a fever first, and found herself relieved. "He's panting, but he doesn't have a fever, so it didn't make him ill."

"Move him by the tree," Inuyasha suggested. "I mean, it is his tree, right?"

Kuwabara nodded and brought the fox over to the large tree leaning him up against it. He smiled as Kurama sighed in relief. "Good call."

"If he has to go through that all the times he goes back and forth, he might as well just stay here."

"What happened on the leaving trip?" Kuwabara questioned.

"He changed back into his fox form, but he was unconscious at first. I'm not sure if it was just sleep or unconscious, but it was definitely not awake," Inuyasha explained. "On the trip here, he basically had to relive everything I think."

The group stayed quiet as they watched the fox, waiting for him to rouse himself and tell them something that would help.

"You seem fonder of him now," Kuwabara eventually remarked.

"He's not bad, just weird," Inuyasha replied.


	4. Shadows

Kagome began to work on studying, idly wondering why her family wasn't home yet as she sat upon the bench. One leg was propped up with the book set out before it and her notebook on her calf as she hunched across it. The other cocked up with her toes on the ground, and her knee nearly meeting it as well. Kuwabara sighed and sat down on the other side of her book looking down at it lazily. "General Science?" he asked curiously.

Kagome nodded. She glanced for a moment at the bloody sleeping fox against her sacred tree, then went back to her question and answer stuff.

"Kurama taught me most of this when I was trying to pass entrance exams. He had some great examples I still remember if you want."

"Like what?"

"Well, for one, figure out how you remember things best. Let me read a section to you out loud, and draw something while I'm reading. Then I'll ask you questions about what we read. Next, I'll have you read yourself, and answer questions. Last, you read out loud. Whichever you remember the best is how you should read your stuff.

Kagome nodded and they began to work together on helping her figure out how to study.

Inuyasha just sighed and leaned against the tree staring at them. Kurama began to rouse after about three hours, but he didn't wake up. He just moved a bit and lounged himself against Inuyasha, resting his head against the demon's shoulder and pressing against his form slightly.

"Kurama?" Inuyasha questioned as he tensed up.

"Sesshomaru," he muttered quietly.

"No, I'm not him." Inuyasha replied. He pushed out his energy a little more making Kuwabara glance over.

With that, Kurama woke up and jumped back some. "How long was I out?"

"About four hours?" Kuwabara glanced at his clock and shrugged. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure. When I went back to the past things got very fuzzy, and getting back here, things are also fuzzy. I'm not sure how much I actually remember, and what my brain is just plugging in."

"You agreed to help me in the past," Kagome remarked getting up and going over to him. He winced and leaned against the tree for support as she came close. When she felt his head and checked him over, he relaxed again. "Do you still think it's alright to help me? You don't seem to be feeling too well coming back."

"I think I'll just need a long nap after I come back and I should be okay, especially if someone's here to watch out for me and make sure no one takes me to the hospital or any of that nonsense." Kurama remarked. "Going there I should be okay if I change forms before I go."

"Alright, so it's a plan. You'll still help then?"

Kurama nodded. "What I do remember of the past is that I miss the smell of fresh air, and I'll fight in that any time."

"Kurama, we should get going, it's getting late." Kuwabara requested as he glanced at his watch again. "Give her back the shards and we'll get going." He got up and walked over to the fox holding out his hand.

Kurama shook his head and lay back against the tree again. "I'll stay here with the shards. You go ahead and go Kuwabara. I promise I'll give them back."

Kuwabara sighed and glanced at his watch again before leaving. Kurama pulled himself up and went over to Kagome on the bench sitting down where Kuwabara had been. "I take it you still don't get some of it?" he questioned as he noticed her trying to read the book.

Kagome nodded as Inuyasha made himself comfy near them against the tree to keep an eye on Kagome and Kurama. Kurama began to explain things to the girl before finally getting her set up to work through some problems on her own. At that point, he began to watch Inuyasha.

"What?" Inuyasha questioned as Kurama stared at him openly.

"You smell strongly like your brother." Kurama blushed slightly and dropped his chin alone.

Inuyasha shifted and stared back. "What do you know about Sesshomaru?"

"I know a bit. He is on the second ground of Demon World now." Kurama finally looked away from Inuyasha off down the shrine stairs. "We avoid each other, now." Kurama sighed.

"When did you meet him?" Inuyasha questioned.

"Eh, it was a while ago, maybe 200 years or so."

"Why?"

"Do you really need to know? We don't have contact now."

"Yeah, he's my brother. I need to know."

Kurama sighed and looked up at the stars for a moment. "We met because I did something stupid, and he was quick enough to catch me in the act. I really don't know why he didn't just kill me, but he didn't."

"How come you avoid each other now?"

"I sort of," he frowned and paused, his eyes flicking about upwards. "bolted."

"How come you left?"

"I became restless." Kurama watched Inuyasha with his eyes slightly squinted, and his head tipped, but he didn't actually ask anything.

"So you avoid him 'cuz you ran off?" Inuyasha questioned.

"He would understand it, but I just can't face him again, not after just vanishing on him like that." Kurama shut his eyes and shook his head, before looking back at Kagome's work.

"You sound less like you were just friends, and more like you were partners."

"For a time it wasn't like that, but eventually, yes."

"So why were you laying on him all the time?" The dog questioned with a glare.

"I needed contact. I still do sometimes."

"Why?" Kagome now questioned as she looked between the two of them.

"It's hard to explain Kagome," Kurama shook his head again and tapped her book.

Kagome frowned at him and brushed his hand off her book. "Is it as hard as explaining three worlds?"

Kurama watched her and shrugged, "It's more intimate than that."

"You don't seem like a touchy human," Kagome noticed.

"I can't say I am." Kurama waited, his face scrunching up for a moment before he sighed. "I didn't want to go back to my demon form, ever, but things happen and plans change."

"People change," Inuyasha remarked, glancing at Kagome for a moment. "Do you think I'm still alive here?"

"You're half human?" Kurama questioned again.

Inuyasha just nodded.

"It's hard to say. Most half demons don't live past their shorter life span, if that, and even if you do, it is hard to say that you will stay sane. Demon blood at your time was a strange chemical, and when released in a half human body, it shortens the life span by attacking human organs or functions. The body balances this out by becoming a pure human for a while to recover from the natural drain of the demonic blood. If you were an older breed such as a Mazaku, or two halves demon, then that would not be the case, but since you are half human, you will probably live for about one hundred years or so. You may be able to push two hundred if you are good to your body."

"I'm already sixty five. I was pinned to your tree for fifty years."

"How?"

"A miko's arrow which sealed me to it."

"Ah, those years will not count towards your age, so one hundred fifty, or two hundred fifty, and if you're lucky it actually did seal your demon blood during that time which means you could live for a two hundred life span easier," Kurama remarked. "It's all a gamble though, and you would not be alive now, no matter which happens. That is probably why you are accepted here so easily, that you are dead by now."

"Kurama, help me with this," Kagome summoned pointing to a problem in the book and reading it off. Kurama turned his attention to the work again and began to focus on what he was doing with the girl. As the night drew closer, Kurama tensed up and slipped up into the tree.

"Your family's coming Kagome," Inuyasha remarked as he continued to sit by the tree, but he watched the stairs.

"Where did Kurama go?"

"I guess he doesn't want to be seen," Inuyasha shrugged. "I can't feel him." Still, the dog did know where the fox was, he just wasn't going to make him do something he didn't want to, and it was obvious he didn't want to greet the humans.

"Kagome! Welcome home," Her mother nearly dropped her bags when she came up the stairs she was in such a hurry to go hug her daughter, but she made it, and wrapped her arms tight around the girl. "Oh it is so good to see you again. I wish you would have told us when you were coming home. I could have had dinner made for you and we wouldn't have gone out to the movies tonight."

"No, nonsense Mother, you're a grown woman you can go to the movies." Kagome pulled her baby brother and her grandfather into hugs as well before gathering up her books to head inside. Cheer radiating and welcoming Inuyasha in with them.

When dinner rolled past and Kagome explained everything that had gone on, she glanced around for Kurama again, but Inuyasha just said that he wasn't going to come down to greet them, and they left it at that. Kagome's mother eventually let the two 'go to bed', leaving Inuyasha to rest in Kagome's room like normal, but bringing up a sleeping pad for the dog.

She helped Kagome with her laundry and the two had some time to actually talk together as woman on woman. "So what is it about Kurama that has you so on-edge? You seem to be really concerned about where he is right now."

"Well he has the shards. He promised he wouldn't leave with them, but I'm still getting to know him, and the shards are really important to my mission."

Her mother nodded and considered that for a bit. "I think if he said that he wasn't going to do anything, he won't. You said he was an avatar didn't you?"

Kagome nodded.

"Well that means he was raised just like you were, with two perspectives instead of one, so he has your morals and values, as well as his original set. I think he'll do the right thing." She flicked out a pair of pajamas.

"I think so too, but I'm still worried."

"Why don't you go bring him some dinner then? You know he's outside somewhere, right?"

"I don't know where he is though, he's somewhere on the shrine, that's all I know. He had a way to hide the shards even, so I don't know where he is from the location of the shards."

"That's okay, once you bring out something for him to eat, he should come to you and you can ask him to come inside to rest."

Kagome sighed before shaking her head again, "I think I'll just let him take care of himself. Inuyasha would be more upset with him if he didn't know what was going on. Even if I don't trust Kurama, I trust Inuyasha." She kissed her mom gently on the cheek. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight dear."

Kagome went to bed after that.

The next morning Kagome found the shards right where they were supposed to be, around her neck in their little bottle. Inuyasha sat on her desk watching her with a curious stare as she got up and touched the bottle, smiling. "Did you hear him?" she asked Inuyasha curiously.

"No. He snuck in without me noticing."

Kagome sighed and began to gather up her things for the day. "I have to go to school. Are you going back to the past today? I mean, if they didn't attack me before, they aren't going to attack me now."

Inuyasha nodded, "I'll go back today and tell the others what happened." Inuyasha replied. "When are you coming back?"

"I'll come back in a little over a week? So nine, ten days?" she offered.

Inuyasha gave her an irritated look but nodded. "Fine."

* * *

As the days passed, Kagome didn't see hide nor hair of Kurama, but she did see Kuwabara. She called him up a few times to help with her studying realizing how much having the two of them help actually aided her, and by the time her final test was over, and she felt confident she did good. She actually felt decently prepared to study in the past too. She was packing her bags to head back to the past, when she finally realized her error.

Kurama didn't know when she was leaving. Hurrying outside in her teddy bear pajama pants and matching top, much to her family's chagrin, she went up to the tree slightly out of breath from her panic. "Will you please tell Kurama I'm heading back to the futile era really soon? I wanted to go tomorrow but I just realized he doesn't even know anything close to a time span!" she stressed. Staring up at the tree she realized it couldn't actually talk back to her and her mind just fretted about the message getting to him. Hopefully she could trust the tree to tell its master something that important.

"I hear it directly." Kurama replied. He sat up in the tree as Kagome turned away.

"What?" she spun around searching for him. He was in a pair of black slacks with a white button up shirt leaning on a branch crouched down and staring down at her with an admonishing half grin.

"I hear what you say directly." The tree shuttered and bowed a little as he hopped down off of the branches. "I'm just not always paying attention. When you say my name I pay attention."

"You seem much calmer than you normally are," Kagome remarked with a soft smile.

"I can't help it. You look too vulnerable in pink teddy bear pajamas to be crass," Kurama replied giving her a stern look. "I won't be ready to leave by tomorrow. How long will we be gone?"

"I tend to be gone for months at a time, so maybe one or two?" Kagome subconsciously tugged at the bottom of her flannel night outfit.

Kurama's firmness broke and he chuckled turning away from her. "I should be able to get away for a couple months in a day or two, but I can't leave tomorrow."

"Inuyasha will be here to pick me up the day after tomorrow."

He fed some energy to the tree. "Alright. I should be able to get my affairs in order by then. It will be tough so don't count on it one hundred percent, but I'm an overachiever." Kurama turned around and brushed a little bit of Kagome's hair back behind her ear. "You're just too cute in that." He frowned at the girl and shook his head. "Please tell me you wear better pajamas in the past."

Kagome blushed and shook her head. "No."

Kurama sighed and shook his head in disbelief. "Well I'm going home. You get to bed young lady." He tapped her nose.

Kagome chuckled and smiled nodding. "I will. Goodnight Kurama."

"Goodnight Kagome."


	5. Meeting the Family

The morning of the tenth day Kurama showed up at the house with a bag of his own. His bag was considerably lighter, some cleaning things, bandages, and bags of seeds as well as a pillow, some cups and pots.

"Good morning Kurama!" Kagome smiled and waved to him as she took a deep breath of fresh-ish morning air. "Is everything set up?"

"Yes. I'm going to assume that you will be bringing something to start fires and other camping necessities?"

"Along with a lot of food and clothes."

"You bring food?" Kurama frowned and watched her.

"Duh! What would you eat out there if you didn't have food?"

"Snakes, birds, small mammals, fruits, barriers, roots, and flowers. It's actually quite good. I'll have to teach Inuyasha how to hunt," he pondered licking his lips.

"Oh, are you Kurama?" A woman called from the door behind Kagome.

Kagome looked over her shoulder at her mom and smiled. "Yup! This is Kurama! Sometimes he looks like a really tall Inuyasha though, with a tail in white, so don't freak out if you see him like that."

"You mean he has ears too?" Her mother asked.

Kurama tensed up and stared at the woman in confusion.

"You simply must come inside and eat breakfast with us!" the woman offered gently sending Kagome into the yard and slipping past her to take Kurama's hand. Kurama allowed her to lead him inside.

"Miss Higurashi, I had breakfast before I came," he offered quietly.

Kagome's mom turned around and gave him a quizzical stare, "Well then you'll just have to eat twice. We're not quite ready to give up Kagome yet."

"Mom," Kagome whined as she followed after Kurama.

"No buts Kagome, we won't see you for a month so you're eating with us this morning since Inuyasha hasn't come yet."

"You seem to know quite a bit about what's going on," Kurama cautiously offered as he was placed at the table with a young boy and an old man. Kagome took her seat across from him as the mother began to place food on the table.

"Of course I know what's going on with my daughter!" She replied with a frown. "Doesn't your mother know?"

Kurama gave her a nervous look and shook his head. "But I have it a little different than your daughter." Kurama accepted tea from Kagome but shook his head at food and muttered a polite denial.

"What's so different from you and Kagome, lad? Is it because you're a demon yourself?"

Kurama took a deep breath as he stared at the table. "Somewhat." He took a sip of his tea as the room fell silent, waiting. Kurama glanced up and frowned looking around at them. "Is something wrong?" His senses quickly scanned the room and the land.

"Will you elaborate on how it is different?" The elder asked.

"Oh." Kurama frowned slightly but just nodded. "I suppose it couldn't hurt considering you know so much already." Kurama frowned trying to think of how to start. "I have a demonic soul because my demonic body was killed and I escaped the ferry girl who came for me. Instead of dying, I took refuge in my mother's fetus. When I was young I didn't tell her because I didn't think she deserved to know. She was just someone I was using to get to an ends." Kurama's brow furrowed at his own harsh words.

"That's changed, hasn't it darling?" Kagome's mother remarked, sure of her words.

"Yes. My mother saved me from death's clutches again, although I had been nothing but cruel to her. It shocked me. I didn't know what to think about it." Kurama sipped his tea as the others ate and allowed himself a moment to reminisce. "In the end, I decided that I owed it to her to be a perfect son and I grew to love her. Now I won't tell her because I do not want her to know that I've been dishonest with her." Kurama glanced up at the others. "She's a wonderful woman. I do not wish to hurt her."

"What of your father, boy? Where is he in this story?"

"He's away. He died when I was young."

"Did you have parents as a demon?" Kagome asked curiously.

"I did." Kurama nodded. "As possible as it is to just suddenly exist, it is much easier to have parents conceive you."

Kagome's younger brother choked on his rice. "I'm too young for that!"

Kurama frowned and eyed the child. "Surely you're not that naïve."

Kagome sighed. "Souta, you'll be fine. So what happened with your demon parents Kurama?"

"I moved out and grew up? Well, kind of." Kurama frowned. "I only stayed around them long enough to be able to hunt on my own. That's not really grown up. That's how it is. You don't stay with your parents. It's too hard to live fighting over the same food." Kurama explained as he finished off his tea.

"Well, I think you should tell your mother. I am sure she realizes that you're hiding something from her, sweetie," Kagome's mother reached out and took his hand as he set down the cup making his eyes snap to hers. "She's your mother no matter who you are or what you do. For me I would be driven crazy if my daughter had kept her past life from me. These lives you two live are so hard, and I would feel like I contributed to that hardship if she had to hide it from me at home."

Kurama slipped his hand away from her. "I don't want to hurt her, and if I come clean, she will be hurt." He refused to meet the woman's eyes.

"How? Surely she is hurt now by your lies." The woman consoled.

"She has a new family now, a new life. I am not the center of her world. She is happy." Kurama stated.

"Oh honey," the mother cooed. "You will always be the center of your mother's world. I know, while you're gone I'll go and meet her." Kurama's eyes widened as they snapped to the woman, He looked petrified. "I can tell her about my Kagome so that she understands demons better. That will make it easier to learn about you."

"No!" Kurama denied staring at the woman in shock.

"I won't tell her if you don't want me to Kurama. I just want to talk to her. She deserves to know you're not going to get yourself killed or involved in the mob or anything." Kagome's mother watched him with thinned eyes. "She does love you Kurama."

"I know she loves me and I know how best to keep her safe. She doesn't need to know, and if she does know, you'd be bringing her more harm than good."

"What could you possibly mean? This world is safe, isn't it? We're not in any more danger knowing that demons are in it, why would she be in more danger?"

"You're not in more danger because you cannot be used to leverage me."

"Oh don't be ridiculous. Your mother is perfectly safe."

"No! You don't understand." Kurama stood up nearly bolting out of the kitchen, but he stopped himself and turned back to her. "You know only my demon name for a reason!" He shook his head, "Don't contact her. Don't put her in that type of danger." Kurama headed for the door. "I'll wait for you outside." He left the room swinging his bag onto his shoulder.

"Mom," Kagome admonished. "Kurama can deal with his own life. I am asking him a large favor to help me in the past, and he's only doing it to stay around his lost friend for a while. He doesn't need his world thrown upside down."

The older woman watched the door with a calm resolve, "He does. Kagome, I will find her and I will speak with her before you two return." She nodded to herself as she went back to breakfast. "What he is doing to that poor woman is wrong, and I will not have it on my conscious that she is suffering."

Kagome sighed. "I didn't leave you the name of his friend or his number in my desk, that's for sure!" she told the woman turning up her nose.

Kagome's mother smiled lovingly at her child. "Kagome dear, it's going to be rather easy to find the woman who has a bright red haired son, was remarried, and harmed herself to rescue the child."

The family finished eating breakfast without mishap.

"Bye Kagome! I'll see you when you get home," The mother hugged her daughter and waved from the door.

Kurama stood beneath the tree leaning against it with his head down and his hands in his pockets, and his bag over his shoulder. When Kagome appeared from the house he pushed off and joined her as they walked to the well, Kagome waving to her family until the door. Once inside the well-room Kurama surged his power and changed into his tall youko form. He then proceeded to the edge of the well where Kagome waited.

Kagome held out a hard to him and Kurama gave her a nod before jumping down the well. This time, the well's power didn't build up angrily at his entrance, but gently allowed him through. Kagome jumped down a minute later and watched around her for residual energy while she transferred to the other world. When she landed in the well, it was on top of the fox.

She yelped and stumbled off of him before rolling him over and checking him for injuries. "Kurama," she called gently. "Kurama wake up." She pulled him up and gently tapped his cheek.

A clawed hand snapped around her wrist as his eyes opened in a glare. "What?" he asked with an angry growl.

"Kurama?" Kagome asked somewhat shocked to see the glare he gave her. "Kurama it's me, Kagome."

Kurama looked down at his other hand where he held the shard she had lent him. "Midoriko." His sad eyes turned up to look at Kagome as he studied her for several long minutes. Eventually he sighed and held out the shard to her. "You would be better off keeping these in a leather pouch." He let go of her wrist and stood up grabbing his bag. He unzipped the front pouch and pulled out a little leather bag holding it out to her.

The bag was small enough to hide the entire bottle easily, but still be concealed around her neck. Kagome accepted the bag and slipped it around her neck taking off her other necklace and putting the bottled necklace inside. Kagome gasped when the shards dropped in the bag. "That's how you did it!"

"Hurry up you two!" Inuyasha called impatiently.

Kurama glanced up and smirked before scooping up Kagome and hopping right to the top of the well. He set her down on her feet. "Why Inuyasha, I didn't expect you to be waiting so loyally."

"Har har, the guys are waiting for us back in town." Inuyasha told them. "We're burning daylight."

Kurama nodded and helped Kagome up with her backpack before following after Inuyasha. "We really need to teach you how to pack light."

"We'll be here for a month or more," Kagome defended. "This is good for a month or more."

"This is good for a year." Kurama told her holding up his own bag.

"But you can grow plants. I can't."

"I won't grow our food for the entire month and show you exactly what I mean."

"Guys!" Inuyasha complained.

When they reached the town Kurama stayed close to Inuyasha, his larger ears pinning back against his head as his tail flicked around nervously. The first set of people walking around, just glanced up and turned away, and that was the trend. "This village trusts you so readily Inuyasha."

"It wasn't like that for a long time. They trust Kagome and Kagome can stop me, so they trust me." He explained. "I wouldn't be surprised if they start demanding you get one of your own."

"One of what?" Kurama asked examining the boy, his eyes landed on the necklace. "That's charmed?" he asked as he stared at the beads.

Inuyasha nodded.

"Inuyasha! Is that him?" a voice called out.

A tall woman with a large boomerang stood next to a man dressed in purple robes. On the girl's shoulder sat a small cat with twin tails which flicked around. The cat let out a roar and jumped forward changing into her larger form.

Kurama yelped and jumped out of the way. The cat landed where he had been.

"Kilala!" the boomerang woman cried. A small demon hopped into Kagome's arms.

"Kilala! He's going to be helping us!" Sango ran to get between Kurama and Kilala. Villagers ducked inside buildings, clearing the streets.

"Ah!" Kilala managed to pin Kurama to the ground and dug a large clawed paw into his chest. "Kilala stop it!" He coughed at the pressure and tried to grab at her paw but only one hand made it. "Kilala!" Kurama shut up and looked at Kilala with his ears pinned back. "I can't take it Kilala, back here I just can't take it. You know what she was to me!" Kurama yelled angrily at the cat.

Kilala's claws dug in as Sango tried to grab at Kilala's neck and remove her. It didn't work and the two went back to staring at each other.

Kurama pushed at her leg futilely. "No! I'm sorry Kilala it's not like that! I just want to help put it together. I just want to leave her at peace. Kilala please let me up." Kurama swallowed nervously and nodded a few times.

"Can you communicate with her?" Sango asked somewhat shocked as Kilala got off of Kurama.

"Sometimes." Kurama rubbed his chest where clear scratch marks were showing up from Kilala's paw. He pushed himself up and swung his bag back over his shoulder while Kilala circled him. "Damn it, stop it!" Kurama demanded and jumped at Kilala to attack her. Kilala jumped away and the two bolted around the small town attacking one another, Kurama with his clawed hand, and Kilala with her powerful paws.

Inuyasha snagged the fox as he bolted past. Sango blocked Kilala. Kurama growled furiously, his long white hair whipping falling over his shoulder, and his tail flicking wildly. Kilala tried to run by Sango, but she grabbed a hold of her neck again and this time, Kilala stayed back from the force.

"I thought you said you and Kilala were friends?" Kagome asked.

Kilala roared in anger and almost got away from Sango.

"She's mad at me for leaving." Kurama calmed down and glared at Kilala. "She doesn't understand how much Midoriko meant to me!" Kurama yelled. Kurama glared at the cat but shook his head. "Damn it Kilala calm down! I'm on your side. I'm here now!"

"We're burning way too much daylight for this shit!" Inuyasha yelled angrily. "If you're going to make more issues for us, than you can leave."

"I am not the one making the issues." Kurama growled glaring at Kilala.

Kilala quieted down a bit and changed back to her smaller form.

"Is it over?" a little voice peeped up

"For now." Kurama replied to the quiet voice. He looked over at Kagome curiously. "Who is that you hold?"

"Oh, this is Shippo, that's Sango, you already know Inuyasha, and that's Miroku. Guys, this is Youko Kurama. He'll be helping us when he can."

"So if everyone is done fighting we can get going." Inuyasha pressed.

Kurama nodded. "Lead the way," he suggested.

"Sorry, that's my job," Kagome replied and shut her eyes taking a few deep breaths. "I can't feel any near here, but there seems to be one off to the north east."

Inuyasha nodded and headed north east towards the woods.

"So if you know Kilala, then you must be alive now, aren't you?" Sango asked as she walked to one side of the new member. Miroku flanked him on the other side mainly watching Sango, but occasionally his eyes would flick over the new figure.

"I am. I'm in Demon World. I can't say I'm very social at the moment."

"You also said that Kilala and you traveled with Midoriko?" Miroku asked tucking his hands in his sleeves.

"We did." Kurama adjusted the strap and carefully felt his shoulder where Kilala's claws had dug in. "Kilala and I fought by her side many times."

"How did you meet Midoriko?"

Kurama dropped his head and shook it. "I'd rather not talk about that. Instead, how did you meet Kagome?"

"Oh! Well…" Sango began to explain everything that had happened with her and Kagome from the deception, to Kohaku. By the time she was done Shippo and Miroku had thrown in their own stories about meeting Kagome and the only ones left were Inuyasha, and Kurama.

"It's almost lunch time. We should stop so we can find something to eat." Kurama suggested.

Inuyasha looked over his shoulder at the fox. "There aren't any streams around here though, what are you thinking of finding?"

"Deer. There are some trails we've come across since we've been walking that we could search down. It wouldn't take too long and we'd come back with something."

"Oh hah, you plan to catch a deer? Do you know how fast those things go?" Inuyasha shook his head. He crossed his arms.

"That's why there are two of us." Kurama came up behind him and clapped his shoulders. "Come on Inuyasha, trust me on this. It'll be fun."

Inuyasha gave off a heavy sigh. "Fine. We'll stop for now but we're walking after lunch until dusk."

"Agreed." Kurama nodded and turned towards the woods taking a deep breath. "There aren't any signs of them that way," he pointed towards where he stared, "But I have seen more signs of them that way then the reverse so our best bet is to take to the trees that way and see if we can find them stopping for lunch in a field." Kurama held out his pack to Kagome, who accepted the parcel.

"Suit yourself fox. How do you want to do this?" he asked bluntly.

"I'll go that way," he pointed somewhat back towards where they had been coming from and out into the forest. "You go that way." He pointed about ninety degrees from where he was pointing. "If you find them, power up, but not for long. You don't want to startle them off. I'll come and we'll circle on either side and trap one then bring it back. If I find one, I'll power up and you're to come to me, same procedure."

"What if neither of us finds one?"

"If you don't find a heard of them, head towards me and we'll circle back in the middle."

Kagome sighed and flopped down. "I brought a lighter, Miroku, Sango and I will get a fire started and cook something just in case you fail."

"Have faith!" Kurama complained. "We'll find something." He turned and looked towards Kilala, "If you'd like to join us, you can go that way." He pointed behind the group towards the other side of the clearing where he figured they would have less luck.

Kilala roared and bounced off into the sky.

Kurama smiled and bolted off into the trees while Inuyasha growled in frustration and headed off on his own.

After about ten minutes of setting up the fire, Kilala's energy flared and the group felt both Inuyasha and Kurama react, bolting for her location. Kagome shook her head in wonder and sighed. "You know what he told me? He said that I brought too much along and that he wasn't going to grow a single thing to eat this month just to prove he didn't need to bring anything and he could still eat."


	6. Trusting?

The group returned with a dead deer hauled between Inuyasha and Kurama on a stick between them. Inuyasha's energy practically glowed as he walked tall and smirked. Kilala had bloody teeth and paws from catching the kill.

"Look what we got Kagome!" Inuyasha called to her nearly dancing over as he helped Kurama carry the deer.

Kurama smiled and watched the male as he laid out the deer on the dirt and made a knife from the grass cutting it open to prepare it. "That's all fine and good Inuyasha, but come help me prepare it."

Kurama proceeded to teach Inuyasha about the different organs, and uses for them. He taught the dog what to take out, how to check for illness in the creature, and then what the best parts of it were. Kagome sat back and watched in wonder as she boiled up some rice for them to have with their meat. When Kurama finally got the deer cut down far enough to cook as shish-kabobs they had been in the clearing nearly an hour and were well rested, but no one really cared that it was taking so long. Inuyasha was absolutely glowing with accomplishment.

As they ate their lunch Inuyasha told Kagome exactly what happened in livid detail. "So when we reached Kilala she was in her little cat form and all Kurama had to do was look at her before he knew what she was doing. She snuck up so quiet on the deer they didn't even hear her coming. Kurama told me to go around the left and he went around the right. When Kilala transformed and attacked the deer they ran so fast that she couldn't keep up, but Kurama scared them off from escaping on his side, and then they were running at me and I stopped them from my side when Kilala made the kill!" He told her as he ripped into one of them. "Man you should have seen it Kagome. I never knew hunting could be like that."

"What were you eating before you met Kikyo?" Kagome asked quietly.

"Ah, typically rats, birds, or fish." Inuyasha replied looking down at the fire. He sighed. "And I've never really been around people who knew how to hunt like that, I guess aside from Kilala, and she doesn't talk to me."

"She can't. She can only talk to those who can transform into animal-like forms." Kurama replied as he sat beside the monk and Kagome.

Sango gave Kurama a weary look. "What are we going to do with the rest of this meat?"

"Well the crows can have the rest of the carcass, but the stuff we've cooked we can make into jerky, especially since Kagome probably has some sort of salt with her?" he asked looking at the girl.

Kagome gave him a half-hearted glare. "I don't."

"That's alright, I brought some." Kurama reached for his bag and pulled it over shuffling through it until he found the salt, he had at least one gallon Ziploc baggie of it. He took the leftover meat that had been mainly out of the fire and patted salt into it before putting it back on the fire. "This will give us something to eat on the way so we don't have to stop and hunt every time we want food."

"That sounds like a lot of work," Sango remarked. "I mean if you didn't have salt with you, then you would have to go get some from somewhere." She turned her food over a few times before taking a small bite. She kept her boomerang laying across the ground in front of her.

"It can be eaten without the treatment; it's just a bit harder to stomach." Kurama replied. "You don't like me very much do you?"

Sango chewed and swallowed before answering, still watching him. "You're strange. You come back to the past to help Kagome gather the shards. Kilala hated you until you suggested to go hunting. You already have Inuyasha on your side completely, and Kagome seems to be alright with you but I don't understand why. You're a demon but you say you cared deeply for Midoriko. You won't tell us why, and you look like a girl." Sango pointed out.

"Yeah, I've glanced past you a few times and thought you were a girl, but every time you talk I'm stunned at how deep your voice is. You look like Sesshomaru too."

Kurama sighed. "Well I can't say I didn't expect this." He began to clean himself up as best he could without becoming dirtier in the process. "I'm not here to help Kagome recover the shards. I'm here because I lost someone dear to me, and I wish to see her resting peacefully." He glanced around, his tail flipping out. "I wish to release Midoriko from the jewel all together, but until its whole again, I cannot do that."

"How would you do that?" Shippo asked curiously from his spot in Kagome's lap.

"I would wish would be for her to be free." Kurama carefully packed away the salt.

"So why are you doing this with Inuyasha?" Miroku asked. "I can't see why a demon would be so nice to a half breed." That earned him a glare from Inuyasha before the kid looked somewhat uneasy. He turned towards Kurama.

Kurama glanced over at Inuyasha and gave the kid a smile. "I miss his brother." He blushed, and dropped his head, zipping up his bag.

Inuyasha stared at him in shock. "What? What the hell is that supposed to mean!" Inuyasha yelled angrily.

"Look, I know I'm a selfish prick but I'm not going to hurt you at all!" Kurama explained setting his bag aside. "Hell, I'm enjoying your company! You knew. I'm making up the difference of your loss and in the meantime enjoying being close to his scent again." Kurama shook his head. "Don't blame me for that. It's not like I'm going to kill you for him. I can't run off and talk to the bastard. He doesn't even know me yet." Kurama crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the ground. "He won't know me for another three hundred years, so what's the harm in being close to you."

"What about Kagome?"

"I don't trust him." She replied. "It's just I know Inuyasha trusts him and that's good enough for me. Plus, my mom said something that made a lot of sense. Kurama grew up as a human, even if he was a demon, so he's going to have some of the same morals as we do. He's going to feel the same emotions that we can."

Inuyasha dropped his twig by the fire and walked off.

"Inuyasha! It's not like I was lying to you!" Kurama called out as the young demon stomped off into the woods. Kurama sighed and stared after him. "It's not like he can change it either." He sat back down. He shook his head. "Poor kid."

"So why is it you look like a girl?" Miroku asked finally.

Kurama looked over at Miroku and shrugged. "I'm a silver fox. Do you expect me to look like a man? Fox demons originally fed off of the affection and love of humans, in particular, the men. My whole species is rather effeminate." Kurama watched Miroku carefully before putting his cheek against his shoulder and smiling over it at Miroku. "See something you like with all that glancing?" he asked in a higher voice, more feminine.

Miroku choked and hacked out half his lung blushing furiously.

"Serves you right Letcher." Sango scoffed.

Kagome giggled and shook her head. "I think you'll get used to him. I didn't like Kurama that much when we first met, but he's started to grow on me, and what's the harm with him being brotherly to Inuyasha? It makes me happy to see Inuyasha like this. He never really got a chance to be a kid, and now that Kurama's here, he can have a chance to learn things like hunting, and other things his dad might have taught him."

"But Kagome, he's a fox. He's not a dog. He should be teaching me instead." The little fox that hadn't spoken that much since their journey began piped up.

"I will teach you little one. You're just so little that I have to make sure I have games fast enough for you." Kurama replied. "But I can teach you what I know."

"You just think I'm weak."

"What's weak about not needing to fight?" Kurama rebuked. "I don't fight if I can get out of it too. That's what our illusions are for. When you're older you'll learn the arts of other demons, but right now it's your job to perfect being a fox."

Shippo sighed but nodded. "Fine. Then let's play hide and seek some time."

"Deal." Kurama replied.

"And don't try to steal Kagome from Inuyasha! Kagome is Inuyasha's to take care of, not yours."

"Don't worry kit, your mother's not leaving Inuyasha for me, if I get a say." He assured the child with a chuckle. "I thought that's what it was. How long have they been flirting?"

"We do not flirt!" Kagome took a swing at the fox, but the fox moved out of the way acting as if he was just going to gather up the empty sticks to avoid her attack instead of the fact that he was avoiding her attack.

"Two years? Three?"

"Since they met."

"Shippo!" Kagome admonished.

Kurama smirked over his shoulder at her. "It's obvious Kagome, you love him and he loves you, so shut up, give way to your whims of the body, and stop all this-" he wiggled a finger around her sexual areas, "stress you have built up over him."

"You're one to talk! What about you and…" Kagome frowned and tried to come up with someone she knew of his friends. "Kuwabara!"

Kurama laughed again and shook his head. "My, my, you would have been closer with Sesshomaru. At least he's taken me to bed once." Kurama scoffed. "Kuwabara is a straight as your dog."

"I did not need to hear that!" Inuyasha yelled as he entered the clearing.

"Oh don't worry Inuyasha, it's not for another…" he sat there a minute calculating the time change, "Three hundred sixty two years, two months, one week, and three days."

"How do you remember that exactly?" Miroku asked.

Kurama looked at the monk with a smirk. "Best night of my life. I'm sure you remember your best." He subsequently sidestepped a boomerang going to Inuyasha and grabbing his hands. "Are you feeling better now?" he asked carefully.

Inuyasha swatted at him, but Kurama didn't avoid it and was struck across the shoulder. "You idiot! Why the hell are you so attracted to my brother anyway? Huh? He's a big jack ass who wants to kill me. If you loved him you'd help him instead of me."

"Love him?" Kurama asked as he rubbed his shoulder. "I don't love him Inuyasha, I just miss him. You can miss someone and not love them."

Kagome flopped down and glared at the fox. Sango caught her boomerang and set it down beside her as she finished off her lunch.

"I don't understand you, Fox. You say that you miss him, and that you had the best time with him. You admitted you were partners, but you don't love him?"

"Sesshomaru caught me while I was trying to steal from him and kept me around. We fought. I wouldn't let him have a moment's peace, but eventually, he put me to work and I became used to him." Kurama wrapped his arms around his chest. He turned away from the lot of them, staring at the edge of the clearing. "One day he found me huddled over in a ball crying my eyes out and he scooped me up, took me to my room, and let me have the contact I needed, from him." He sighed and dropped his arms. "After that he helped me keep my craving down and I kept working for him until he brought me out of the castle and made me his partner. I kept an eye on the east of his territory, he kept an eye on the west, and we worked together in unison for nearly ten years before I bolted." Kurama turned back to Inuyasha again. "Hit me all you like, but that is not going to change the fact that whenever I'm around you I feel comforted by your scent because it is familiar."

"So what's all this talk about your best night then if you were just business partners?" Inuyasha cautiously took another step forward.

"Well the night he did take me to bed was a month before I bolted. We did play- once, just once." Kurama replied as he sat down on his own spot again having avoided all necessary evils.

"I'm not asking you all to trust me. I'm not asking any of you to even like me, but I'm here to help you, and you should accept it since you asked for it in the first place." Kurama explained.

Inuyasha sighed and shook his head. "Fine, but if we run into Sesshomaru, you'd better side with us and not him."

"If we run into him, I will make myself scarce so you need not worry."

Inuyasha nodded and watched him carefully before giving him another nod. "Fine."

Kurama looked towards Sango, who was still watching him rather skeptically. "What's your call?"

Sango watched him unsure and bit her lip looking him over. She shook her head. "I can't trust you, but I'm not going to stab you in the back if I don't have to. I just can't trust you."

"I am a reformed thief, I'm not surprised."

Miroku chuckled. "You're just too open to be a thief."

Kurama's eyes gleamed with a little bit of mischief. "I said reformed. If you'd like me to prove it to you, I'd gladly take something of yours." His eyes trailed down Mukuro's robes.

Miroku shook his head. "Oh no, you don't need to do that."

Kurama nodded, "Alright. Shall we get moving before dark?" Kurama offered as he got up packing everything away that he needed to and slinging his bag over his shoulder.

Everyone gathered up their things and followed after Kagome and Inuyasha.


	7. First Trial

The village they came to first a few days later was a quaint little place. The huts were well built and newer looking while the people dressed plainly and modestly. Kurama's eyes darted around a mile a minute looking at everything and soon enough he looked like a kid in a candy store. "Shippo this is perfect!" He exclaimed excitedly causing the little boy to stir in Kagome's arms.

"What?" he asked weakly.

Inuyasha frowned and watched the eager fox. "We're not stopping here Kurama. We've got time before dark."

"Oh come now Inuyasha," Kurama admonished. "We should stop for lunch. This town has a wonderful market! They deal in some rare items, you should go canvas for any shards being sold." Kurama offered.

"I don't feel any shards around," Kagome replied with a shrug.

Sango sighed. "This is like the pouch you gave Kagome isn't it?" she asked woefully aware.

"Exactly. Where do you think I learned it from? Go and search the market on the west of town just to check and I'll take Shippo out for some fox 101." Kurama offered as he approached Kagome holding out his arms eagerly.

"You are a thief, why should I trust you?" Kagome questioned with a glare at him that made Inuyasha shiver.

"I have no reason to teach him anything he won't need." Kurama replied with a stiff stare. "We're just going to play hide and seek."

"Your idea of hide is making yourself a tree," Shippo groaned, already well acquainted with 'hide and seek' Kurama style.

"Exactly. I'm going to teach you planking today. Because these houses are so newly made they will be easy to imitate."

Shippo sighed and jumped down running off with Kurama on his heels.

Sango looked around somewhat confused. "Where's Miroku?"

Inuyasha scoffed. "Probably away trying to hook up some girls." He waved them off. "I'm going to go take a nap since the fox obviously convinced you fools. Call if you need me." With that Inuyasha vanished.

Kagome gave Sango a heavy sigh and held out her hand to her sister figure. "I guess it's just us girls on the town."

Sango nodded and took Kagome's arm heading for the west of town. "You know Kagome, it's strange that these buildings are so new. Most villages don't just pop up this large."

"Maybe they just repaired from a demon attack?" Kagome suggested.

"Maybe. I hope they managed to kill the demon. If not we might end up saving the day again." Sango remarked. A few of the people were still working on the buildings as they came closer to the market. Hammers and wood cutting echoed through the area, but the vendors still seemed to be alright. People mulled around in the town passing out supplies.

"Ahoy, you young'ens, come here and give an old man a hand." An old gentleman called out waving them over.

Kagome and Sango glanced at each other, but came over. "What can we do for you?" Kagome asked.

"I need a pair of strong hands to help lift this up. He kicked the fourth wall of the little hut he was building that had ropes tied to it. He beat on his back and directed them each to grab a rope. "Alright, now pull!" he called. The group he'd gathered to help all yanked on the ropes, including Sango and Kagome, and the house lifted up. He began to hammer as they held it in place, waiting for him to finish. It didn't take long, and they walked out of the house.

"Thank you girls for your help, anything I can help you with?"

"We were actually wondering why everyone was building up?" Sango asked carefully.

"Aren't you from here?" He asked curiously.

Sango and Kagome both shook their heads. "We're travelers."

"Oh! My apologies. I thought you were helpers from the inn. We've had a recent demon attacking our city and he just won't leave us alone. Most of the merchants which made this city prosper have left heading up the road a ways to the next town over until we are back on our feet."

"What sort of Demon is it?" Kagome asked curiously.

"It's some big fire monster."

"Thanks for your help."

When they went to look for Shippo and Kurama they searched the entire village and couldn't find either one. Instead, they found Miroku at the well flirting shamelessly with several women. Sango winced and approached him rather angrily. "What do you think you're doing?" She asked the priest angrily.

The girls looked up at her somewhat confused, several scattered and left recognizing the look on Sango's face as an angry wife's glare.

"Nothing Sango, just watching these beautiful doves learn to fly," he replied dreamily. His hand slid down to one of the women's rumps and the girl jumped and squeaked. Sango backslapped him off his perch on the well before grabbing his ear and yelling at him angrily and stomping off.

A distant shriek screamed through the town that sent Kagome running. She bolted as fast as she could towards the noise all the while grabbing for her bow and attempting to snag an arrow. When the four of them reached the scene, Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, and Miroku, they saw what looked to be a large bloody mess. Blood was everywhere, all over the huts and in the streets, covering the few people who had been on the street, and it all was coming from one thing, a rather mutilated corps that was lounged out on the ground with its neck twisted twelve ways to Sunday. The beast was large, shaggy, and hurt looking like it was on steroids. In front of it stood a tall form - small in comparison - holding something to its chest.

The blood still spewing from the attacking creature, Kagome screamed in shock when the head flopped over and the paws of the beast dug into the ground. The form in front of the beast growled in anger and carefully crouched, a whip swished from the side of blood and Kagome recognized the creature before the beast. "Kurama," Kagome breathed in shock.

She knocked her arrow back as Inuyasha lunged with his blade into the fight. "Find the jewel! This thing couldn't be alive!" He called to Kagome. Sango raced forward as Kurama's whip landed across the beast's face.

"Where's Shippo?" Miroku asked looking around frantically. "Shippo!" he called searching for the small creature.

"Here!" A little voice yelped from Kurama's arms. Kagome sighed in relief and began to focus on the beast looking for the shard.

The fight moved faster than Kagome could count and the bear reared up on its massive legs towering like a sky scraper and roaring angrily at the pests attempting to kill him. He then did something that sent Kagome running out of the way, a rare occurrence, he huffed out fire at the lot of them. Kagome caught a glimpse of her friends catching a-flame before the fire reached them and screamed out in fear. Sango, Miroku, and Inuyasha tried to cover themselves as the fire landed on them, but Youko made no move to save his life. Instead, he slashed forward.

Kagome felt tears rolling out of her eyes and slamming into her hands as she stared at the lot of them. Pain, anguish, and desperation gripped at her stomach. She nearly fell to her knees if it weren't for all the battles she'd been in. Her knocked arrow flew towards the fiery mess, but it didn't connect. "Inuyasha!" She called as the fire's heat sent her farther away. "No!" She cried out in pain.

"Kagome just look for the shard! We're fine!" Inuyasha yelled angrily.

Kagome snuck back around the now burning building and relief washed over her. The fire had died and indeed, all of her friends were left un-fried "In the jugular!" she cried out, having seen it when the beast roared towards the sky.

Within the next few minutes, the beast fell like a fish to the ground. Dead, Inuyasha cut through the neck and dug around until he found the piece of flesh with the jewel in it. He dragged that over to Kagome, and she dug out the jewel. She looked at her friends and Shippo hopped onto her with a giant hug before beginning to babble about his adventure.

"… and then he came into town and Kurama slashed him down with his rose picking me up from the porch! He didn't even know I was there and he still managed to save me!" Shippo exclaimed as he rattled on. "Then when the bear was about to set us all on fire Kurama told me to close my eyes and the next thing I knew I felt his fox fire! He has fox fire too!" He patted at Kagome's arm. She slid to the ground and held him close, nearly crying.

"It's not nearly as strong as yours Shippo," Kagome felt a soft hand brush against her cheek, rubbing Shippo's head. "I've had to train long and hard to learn it. You have it naturally."

"Fox fire? Is that why you were all on fire?" Kagome asked quietly.

Kurama nodded. "If you're going to be set aflame, fox fire will protect you." He stepped back from her. "I couldn't reach you because you were too far away."

Kagome nodded. She still felt herself shaking.

"This little kit here will be able to do that too. Now if you all wouldn't mind, I'd like to find a bath." He held up his arms as his ears flicked down and he gave them a hopeful look. He was covered from head to foot in blood.

Kagome chuckled and nodded. "Alright. I think I saw one near the market."

"No, there's one near the well." Miroku replied. "Come on buddy, we'll get cleaned up."

The lot chuckled as the somewhat dirty Miroku flung his arm over the tall fox and led him away, Inuyasha following reluctantly in tow. Sango followed with Kagome and Shippo in the rear as Shippo continued to rave about his day.

When they reached the bath-house, all of the people from the town shuffled out of their way, avoiding eye contact. It wasn't any better in the bath and Kagome stuck close with Sango.

"Why do you think they keep staring at us?" she asked cautiously as she poured some water over Sango to wash her off.

Sango sighed, "Hell if I know. This whole town is kind of odd. Maybe they think we have something to do with that creepy demon."

"What type was it? Could you tell?" Kagome asked as she helped Sango wash.

"No, it looked like a bear made out of corpses though. What did you think?"

"Yeah, it was odd. I really don't know why a bear would have fire."

"Never mind that, at least it's dead." Sango smiled and traded places with Kagome.

After everyone was cleaned up, they prepared to leave town. An orderly man with a nervous stare stood in their way. "I am Mayor Darrow, please accept my humble thanks for ridding us of that monstrosity."

"You're welcome. It's sort of what we do," Kagome replied with a grin.

The man nodded nervously and glanced around at the townspeople. "Please, join me tonight and rest before you continue your travels as payment for killing the beast." He rubbed his hands together in front of himself, hunched over with beady eyes glancing about at the townspeople.

Kurama shifted uneasily behind the man.

Miroku sighed and gave a large grin. "Ah good sir! I see you are charitable indeed. Thank you for your kindness!" The monk nodded excitedly and allowed the man to lead them back towards his house. The innkeeper kept glancing at the other humans as he walked back through town.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and gave a pouting face crossing his arms over his chest and looking away, begrudgingly accepting this.

"This doesn't feel right." Kurama spoke out, not following the group.

Sango and Inuyasha waited to hear him out while Kagome followed after Miroku and the innkeeper.

"What do you mean?" Sango asked as she looked over her shoulder at the man.

"Kagome couldn't sense the shard, the village has been ransacked by the demon before. It attacked Shippo and me. That breed of demon isn't typically around here. This man we are following is still nervous after the demon has been destroyed, and he holds no sway with the people. Quite the opposite is true, he is afraid of the people." Kurama offered quietly to the two of them. "Something's not right."

"Look, we get offered to come stay for the night a lot. If he hadn't offered it up himself we would have probably conned him into it ourselves," Inuyasha remarked.

"The inn of this town is that way." Kurama gave a thumb over his shoulder behind them.

"Times have moved on Kurama, the inns change places like this a lot. You can't expect them all to prosper. Plus the village was just completely burned down, they could have redesigned where the inn was." Inuyasha reasoned again. "Nothing's going to happen. If it does you can say 'I told you so' and we'll be fine."

The innkeeper and his following pack had stopped now and turned to wait for the rest of the group. Kurama stiffened as he caught the eyes of the man and gave off a low growl before following after Sango and Inuyasha who had begun towards Kagome and Miroku. When the group gathered, the innkeeper began towards their destination.

When they reached the inn it didn't seem out of form to Kurama. He entered the house with a weary look around but didn't find anything out of the ordinary. The innkeeper spoke hurriedly about how the demon had begun attacking a few weeks ago and explain the damage the demon had done, section by section instead of the whole village at once. Kurama didn't listen to the story, and as the food came out, he didn't eat the food. He picked at it moving it around, but ultimately didn't eat or drink anything from the house.

Later that night as they settled down in two rooms, one for men and one for women, Kurama noticed everyone fall fast asleep as though they had light switches. Even Inuyasha didn't stay up as late as he should have.

Kurama nodded to himself and got up slipping silently into the girl's room watching over Kagome. She had the jewels around her neck tucked into her bra tonight. Kurama held himself up in the top corner of the room on the wall adjacent to the door. He watched the door and waited. Sleep tried to claim him as he watched over the girl and the kit, but Kurama fought it off. He waited ever so silently in the corner. Well over half way through the night the door slid open to check on the guests, but no on entered the room. Kurama frowned and watched a figure attempt to slide in, then blink and walk away.

Kurama dropped from the ceiling and looked around the room rather confused. What would cause that? He thought over the night and eventually looked outside of the room on the door. Sure enough, the spell was from Miroku, the crafty monk had put a 'protection against evil' spell on the door, and had done a specific spell against theft on the door to Kagome's room. With his mind eased Kurama carefully headed back to his room checking the spell on their door as well. That one was a simple protection spell and wouldn't work if someone had an exact intent.

The next morning came quickly once Kurama had eased his own ill mind to rest, but the late night did take a toll on the fox. He merely smiled and followed after the group, his ears twitching here or there as he listened to what they said as breakfast was served. When Kurama first tasted the food on the table he ate with a vengeance nearly purring in delight at the taste. The rest of the table only nibbled on their breakfast, aside from the innkeeper who ate halfheartedly.

"Man Kurama, why do you like it? It's kind of bland." Shippo whispered to his newest mentor.

"You just don't taste the quality yet." Kurama offered.

Shippo gave him a strange look but set his bowl aside.

"So when you find him, what are you planning on doing?"

"After we defeat the beast we will peacefully extinguish the jewel with a wish," The monk offered as Kagome sat politely silent.

"What will you wish for?" The man asked.

"I still need to think about that. I might just keep the jewel and protect it." Kagome replied.

Kurama just shook his head. "The lore behind the jewel needs to be prophetic."

"What?" Kagome asked curiously.

Kurama shook his head. "I'll tell you later." He waved off.

After Kurama finished his rather large breakfast, the group headed out with the fox twitching. He walked near the middle of the group and his beautiful tail twitched about as though he were annoyed. His fingers were tensed in a ball, and his ears lay back against his head.

"Kurama what's up?"

"It's nothing. I was just thinking about something."

""What is it?" Kagome inquired walking by his side.

"It's nothing of importance. Let's be on our way well and then perhaps during our break or nightfall I shall say."

"Kurama, I've wanted to ask you, what are your partners like?" Miroku questioned.

"My partners?"

"Yeah. You mention having partners occasionally, but who are they?"

"Oh, well I have Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei as my partners now. They were the other spirit detectives. Currently we're inactive and technically fired, but Koenma, or god for your purposes, calls us up every once in a while to go secure something or take care of something else."

"That sounds fun." Kagome remarked.

"Sometimes, it depends on what he's having us do. Most of the time it's very dangerous and we're under qualified for the job."

"Even you?" Sango questioned.

"Even me. In the future I'm just a human with a demon soul and some of my demon energy. I'm only at about forty five percent of what I am here."

"That's low," Inuyasha commented.

Kurama nodded, his ears twitching a bit and flickering around. "Well, Hiei is technically my partner. He is a fire demon who went in with me to steal from Koenma. We were captured by Yusuke, Koenma's spirit detective, and signed up for parole duty with Yusuke as our parole officer in exchange for good behavior, and services." Kurama slowed his pace a little and the others followed as the fox walked along with them. They were just out of town nearly an hour as Kurama explained the group to them, when he shook his head a few times and then stopped, grabbing a tree.

"It's that breakfast catching up on you," Inuyasha scolded. "You shouldn't eat that much." He offered.

"Breakfast?" Kurama looked up at Inuyasha curiously. "I didn't have breakfast today."

"Kurama?" Kagome approached him cautiously.

Kurama growled angrily at the girl and backed up closer to the tree. 'What the hell do you want?" he asked irritated with the woman for really no reason they could see.

"Kurama, why are you so pale?" Shippo asked as he jumped up on Kurama's shoulder and felt his head.

Kurama shook his head trying to clear it and merely found himself on his ass. Kagome rushed closer and grabbed his arm to support him as she reached up and put her hand over his forehead to check for a temperature. "Kurama you're burning up," she scolded angrily. Dropping her bag she dug around and pulled out a water bottle for him as Sango and Inuyasha helped leaning him naturally against the tree.

"'m not dead, just tired," Kurama complained as they moved him around like a rag doll. Kurama grabbed at the bottle as Kagome pushed it up against his lips. He pushed it away and his tail tucked between his legs as he rolled himself over, slipping between Sango and the tree. He shoved his shoulder against the woman sending her back on her ass as he pushed himself off into the woods a bit. He stumbled as he got off the gravel path and curled himself up against a bush growling at the lot of them.

"It's got to be the breakfast," Inuyasha complained.

Miroku offered his hand to the female warrior pulling her up as the three of them came towards Kurama. Kagome stayed back with Shippo, holding him.

Kilala jumped forward and pawed at the fox.

Recognition twitched Kurama's ears forward for a second before he let out a quiet yelping cry. Kilala stopped in her approached and tipped her little furry head sitting down in her spot.

Kurama brandished his fangs looking ferial as his pretty silver tail puffed and craned off his back. His ears pinned themselves back again and his long silver hair almost became his hackles, or fell into the dirt. His eyes gave off an eerie golden glow as his claws dug into the dirt and his feet dug against the grass.

"Get up you fool," Inuyasha scolded rather angry at the fox's antics.

"What was that for breakfast Kagome?" Sango asked cautiously as she grabbed Inuyasha's arm. Miroku stopped on her other side, all three behind the little twin tail.

"Um, I'm not sure." She admitted. "It kind of tasted like some tofu mixture."

"That could be. Spirit foxes love it, but it makes them sick, like cat nip." Sango offered as she knelt down and gently touched Kilala's head. "It's making him foggy."

"Why would he eat it if it made him sick?" Inuyasha asked irritated with the fox.

"It's really hard for them to resist eating it once they have a bite." Sango frowned as she watched the fox.

His eyes flickered around the group as though he were watching something. His head waved as his arms shook, obviously weak.

"Inuyasha, go up to him slowly." Sango suggested.

Inuyasha took a few steps forward and Kurama began to watch him, growling. He backed up a little farther, just pushing against the ground and securing his back against the bush he was nearly trampling.

"What should I do?" Inuyasha asked as he continued forward. Kurama wasn't attacking him.

"Just get him up. We need to help it out of his system."

"Eww! We're going to make him throw up?" Shippo exclaimed.

"We just have to get it rinsed out." Sango offered. "I hope we don't have to make him lose his stomach."

"It might be best if we did," Kagome offered. "The toxin is in his stomach so if he regurgitates then he could sooth it and he wouldn't be exposed any longer."

"Alright, make him puke." Inuyasha huffed. As he was almost within arm's reach of the fox, Kurama changed into a small 'white' furred fox with a few tails. He had a smokey undercoat making him almost glitter a gentle gray. He bolted off.

Inuyasha gave chase and caught the fox around the stomach nearly tackling the poor creature which made him yelp and squirm trying to bite Inuyasha's arm.

Inuyasha was too quick for the fox and quickly secured him going back over to Sango and Kagome. Miroku took Shippo as the fox left his surrogate mother knowing what was coming as Kagome took the panting white fox.

After about three minutes of struggling with the beast, and ten minutes of stomach upheaval, the fox was back in his human-like fox form panting heavily and curled up over Inuyasha's arm. The dog had caught him as he almost fell into his bile. With a quick heave up, Kurama shivered as he leaned against Inuyasha for support.

"Are you crying?" Miroku asked somewhat shocked.

The fox just turned his head as his knees gave out and buried it into Inuyasha's shoulder to hide his tears.

"God damn it fox! Get your shit together!" Inuyasha complained loudly instead of being a gentle soul about the man.

"Inuyasha," Kagome scolded as she went to Kurama and freed him from Inuyasha's grasp taking on his weight trying to lead the male away from their spot.

Miroku jumped to help wrapping Kurama's other arm over his own shoulder. The group cautiously made their way into the woods off the path following Inuyasha until they found a spot to camp which wasn't too far away. Kagome allowed the now exhausted, tear soaked fox to lay on the edge of camp as the others scurried about to set it up. Inuyasha scowled off to go get firewood while Sango and Miroku began to make a pit.

Shippo and Kilala stayed with Kagome. Kilala approached the fox and changed forms. He looked at her and winced. He struggled to get up and grab Kagome, who sat by his side, hiding himself from the cat. Kilala froze at that, obviously hurt, but cautiously approached crawling up around the fox and wrapping herself around him to support him.

Gradually Kurama eased himself against the cat just from exhaustion, and Kagome excused herself to start cooking dinner. Kilala lay her head on the fox's lap as the fox curled up with her as best he could, whispering quietly to the beast. His grip would flex in her fur as the day moved past, the group locked from his weakness just an hour out of town.


	8. Naraku

As the sun rose high a wretched laugh filled the area and the twin tail growled protectively over the sleeping fox.

"Well, well, well, what is this? The humble group gets a pet!" The baboon came into the clearing, pelt secured over the doll.

"Get out of here Naraku." Inuyasha ignored him, poking the fire with a stick.

"I just can't pass up an opportunity to meet your newest guest." Naraku scolded. "I hope he enjoyed my welcome gift." The baboon fell over. A puff of smoke later and the wooden doll lay on the ground completely whole, but disabled.

Above them Kagura swiped her wind down at the group sending the majority of them scattering, the fire caught in the wind and jumped around hitting the edge of the rock wall, but the fox lay as calm as ever as Kilala began to panic. Sango joined her beast to protect Kurama while Kilala tried to wake him up.

"What killed that doll?" Miroku asked as he batted at bees who swarmed from the trees.

"I don't know! It looks normal," Inuyasha yelled as he stood on the defensive readying his wind scar. "Damn it Kagura come down here and fight!" He let the wind scar bite into the air as the wind demon avoided the attack.

The witch turned and fled as the dog moved to jump up towards her. As the wind demon left, the cat settled, and the bees flew off following their master's puppet.

"Great, the first time we could use him and he's sick!" Inuyasha scolded. He stabbed his sword into the ground and glared after Kagura.

"Watch your mouth Inuyasha!" Kagome put her bow back over her shoulder and checked on Shippo. "Kurama's back here just because he feels he can help us, not because he needs to be or because he did anything wrong!" Kagome scolded angrily. "He's here out of his own selflessness, dealing with the loss of his friend, and poisoned because we stayed somewhere he thought was a trap. He has every right to leave!"

"I'm not the one who wants him here!" Inuyasha yelled back pointing his sword towards Kurama.

"You were Inuyasha." Miroku pushed the sword off to the side with his staff. "You enjoyed his company." Miroku reminded the dog.

"Don't be so crass Inuyasha. You get along well with Kurama and he's a good fighter, he's just been drugged. We all have things happen to us once in a while. Miroku gets ill from sucking in poison bees, Sango gets sick if she's trying too hard, I have to go to school, and even you have things happen to you every month."

"He wasn't coming here to slow us down. He was here to speed us up." Inuyasha argued. "I say we send him back, and get him out of our hair." Inuyasha folded himself up in an angry huff on the side of the clearing.

"Make yourself useful and go kill a rabbit or something!" Kagome yelled angrily at the dog, crossing her arms over her chest. "I can't take any more of your bickering!"

Inuyasha winced but went out in the forest to look for food, Kilala watching after him.

As night fell Inuyasha came back empty handed and the fox was sitting awake, but barely. He was still foggy enough to need support, so he lay on Kilala and watched the fire, his eyes dazed out and distant. "Welcome back Inuyasha," Kurama murmured as he tried to hoist himself back up again. He managed to make it to a sitting position, but that was it.

"Tch, finally on your feet again you stupid fox? You know what happened while you were out?"

"The doll?" Kurama questioned cautiously. His head tipped to the side, and kept bowing further down until he would drudge it back upright again.

The group stopped and stared at him in shock. "What do you know about what happened while you were asleep?" Miroku questioned somewhat eagerly.

"Well, a tree came into my grove. It had a nasty energy. I replaced the energy with my own, it collapsed. When I investigated the culprit, I found a wooden doll. That's all I know."

"Naraku attacked, and in the middle of what he was saying, the doll just – fell. It landed in the clearing. Kagura led the assault after that." Sango filled in. "So you're the reason the doll fell."

"We didn't have to listen to Naraku's poison because of you." Shippo remarked, pleased. "You've been out most of the day. Kagome's been taking care of you. Sango said it was because of the breakfast you had."

"Breakfast?" Kurama frowned. "I'm not sure I remember eating breakfast. I did quite a bit today though, I covered good ground." He nodded.

"We're only an hour out of town." Inuyasha grumbled.

Kurama frowned and looked around the group, his eyes settling on each of the people individually before he sighed. "I think my real self and my future self here are colliding due to poison. I keep seeing images, demon trees, people I met a long time ago, and feeling like she just died." He grit his teeth as he tried to work through his thoughts. "It's hard to separate the two." His head began to steady as he focused on the fire.

"Maybe once we get moving you'll have a better time. You're still recovering from the tofu in breakfast."

"Tofu?" Kurama frowned. "That does make me sick, but it doesn't make me feel like this. Perhaps having something painful like that has caused a placement adjustment. I do remember getting sick suddenly this day all those years ago."

"So your real body feels what this body feels." Miroku concluded. "That should have been very confusing."

"I was too angry to notice." Kurama shook his head. "There was very little I was aware of, but I had fleeting moments of rationality."

Kagome held out something for him to eat and he accepted it with a smile. "Thank you Kagome."

"Kurama, who was she to you?" Kagome asked softly.

"I told you." Kurama replied bluntly looking away from the group.

Kilala let out a heavy sigh and got up letting Kurama support himself walking away from him. Kurama eyed the cat cautiously while Sango frowned and followed after her to the edge of camp where she curled up with her back to the fox changing back to her smaller form.

"You told me that you were friends. I don't think that's everything. How did you meet her?"

Kurama leaned forward staring at the dirt in front of his legs. "I met Midoriko when she was little." Kurama's face contorted a little, his ears falling down and his tail wrapping tightly around his waist.

"Wait, why did you meet her?" Miroku asked curiously.

"She crossed my path."

"So you two didn't interact with each other at all?" Inuyasha questioned.

Kurama shook his head. He closed his eyes and curled around his plate taking a few bites before he tried to explain. "She was being attacked by a group of demons. At the time I protected children and women."

"So, you saved her?"

"I did." Kurama nodded. He went back to eating. They mulled over what to ask.

"Was that the last relationship you had to her?"

"No." Kurama didn't explain further. He took a few deep breaths and calmed the tension from his face before looking up at the group. "I apologize for causing the group such trouble. I'll be more careful to avoid future problems. Please excuse me." He set down his half-eaten meal and escaped into the forest.

None of them went after the old fox, leaving him to himself.

"Do you think he's telling us the truth? Demons don't often protect humans, especially not in this time period."

"He said he did though, and I have heard many stories about fox demons protecting or aiding humans. They typically have something to gain from it, but it does happen." Sango provided. "The strange thing is that he said that was not last."

"If it was, he wouldn't know Kilala." Kagome offered.

"Kilala would have protected her if she was young and she wouldn't need saving."

The twin tail mewed and snuggled up to Sango.

"Inuyasha, don't be mad at him anymore!" Shippo whined. "He needs a friend."

"He doesn't need anything. He's not even from here." Inuyasha barked back. "He's better off just sticking to himself."

"Come on Inuyasha! Just because he has his weaknesses you're going to push him away? You really need to grow up. We all have our own weaknesses and his just happened to be something we could have prevented." Shippo scolded.

"We are the ones who need his help. He is here for us." Kagome reiterated again.

"Only so he can be around those shards and he won't even tell us why he wants to be near them!" Inuyasha exclaimed angrily. "Maybe he's a Naraku spy back here."

"I don't think so." Miroku's eyes thinned as he thought about it. "If what he says is true, and he's here to be near Midoriko they must have been very close. We can use all the help we can get. I think we should let him do his thing and keep an eye on him. Hopefully he hasn't lied to us about something major. He goes through too much pain to come back here and to go home in order for this to be fake."

"See? He checks out."

"I still don't like it. We don't know why he wants to help us!" Inuyasha complained again.

"Midoriko was like my daughter." A silver form gradually sank into the light. He sat down against the same tree Inuyasha was near, but pointed away from the group. He took a few deep breaths. "When I first saved her, I just abandoned her. The next time I saw her, she saved me. I was…" Kurama couldn't continue. His jaw snapped shut and his eyes closed tight.

Kagome sighed and shuffled her feet. "It's alright Kurama. We know what demons are like here, you can tell us." She felt bad saying it, since she knew everyone would think differently about him. She had to support him. She had to give him some indication that it was alright.

"I was killing. She yelled at me." Kurama swallowed and curled up on his leg, wrapping his arms around his stomach. "It stopped me dead in my tracks and gave the priest the upper hand. When the priest was going to finish me off, she yelled at him, and he stopped. At an impasse, I left. Over the years I developed my thieving skills so I could stop fighting for things I wanted."

"Why did you stop?" Sango asked bluntly.

Kurama winced, his shoulder hunching over his head as he turned it away. "I kept seeing her when I would go to kill."

Kurama relaxed a little and carefully took a deep breath to compose himself. The group sat in pure silence, waiting for him to continue. "When she grew older, I stalked her. I saved her again. This time I was reluctant to leave her, so I offered to train her. She accepted. I had grown restless afterwards, so I left. The next time I saw her, I was captured and she helped me escape. She tended my wounds. Our relationship continued. One of us would become injured, or we would need assistance somehow, and we would help each other. When things became bad enough that Kilala joined her in the fight, I stayed by her side for as long as I could and fought beside her. It was hard on all three of us. Kilala and I didn't get along, and Midoriko was always stressed."

Kurama wiped the tears from his eyes. He took a few more deep breaths as he tried to bury the pain away. It was stronger than ever here, and the only thing helping was Kagome's jewel shards giving him some comfort.

"When the end came I went on a rampage. I fell through a portal to Demon World. It felt like someone had ripped away my consciousness and left me for dead. When I came to, I was still upset, but I was cognizant. There were people following me as a leader for thieving. Every once in a while I'd escape them. One of the times when I did escape, Sesshomaru caught me."

"So that's how you know my brother," Inuyasha reconfirmed.

"It wasn't until I was with Sesshomaru that I began to honestly find my interests and my spirit again."

"He didn't say anything about recognizing me so I will have to hide if we do run into him." Kurama carefully pushed himself up and turned his back on the group looking out towards the darkness.

"That's fine. We can help you there," Kagome offered.

"I didn't know you knew Sesshomaru," Miroku requested.

Kurama's ears twitched back towards the man and he nodded. "I stuck around for a while with him, but eventually I became restless again and I left."

"So why do you become restless?"

Kurama turned to give Kagome a considering stare before finally relenting with a sigh. "I'm not comfortable divulging that information."

"Do you know if Naraku lives?" Sango asked suddenly.

Kurama turned and looked at her squarely, "No. I never heard of Naraku. I left Human World long before Naraku reared his head."

"Did you know my dad?"

Kurama smiled gently towards Inuyasha and shrugged, "I saw him in passing before I met Midoriko."

"Did you steal from his dad?" Kagome asked cautiously.

Kurama laughed and smiled. "I did not. The Lord did not keep anything of enough value to risk my hide like that. It would have taken a Koorime Birthing Gem to risk that," he challenged.

"Are those some of the highest priced goods?"

"They typically are, yes."

"What's a Koorime?" Shippo asked curiously.

"It is an ice apparition who lives on a mountain over Demon World. They are most special because they cry gems instead of tears. The Koorime are often kidnapped if they venture off their land."

"If it's such an isolated place, how do they avoid marrying their siblings?" Miroku questioned curiously.

"Koorime are one of the rare demons that reproduce asexually."

"Asexually?" They all questioned. Kagome shrieked it, but still said it.

Kurama winced and his ears fell down. He nodded slowly and came out of his shell again. "They conceive alone on their hundredth birthday."

"Come sit down Kurama," Kagome coaxed.

Kurama sighed and sat down feeling a little better with the change in conversation. He taught the group about demons for the rest of the night, different types, their alliances in Demon World, and the species types. Sango posed most of the questions about weaknesses and strengths, so eventually the others drifted out leaving the two to speak. It was around midnight when Kurama finally couldn't hold himself up any longer and held out his arm to the side as he supported himself. Sango let him go to sleep, which he promptly accepted nearly passing out.

"He's smart," Inuyasha offered Sango.

Sango nodded. "He's in a lot of pain too." Sango debated with herself over her next comment. "I want to believe him."

"Then believe him. No one is stopping you," Miroku suggested.

"Guys, there's nothing he's done that says he's not telling us the truth." Kagome pulled out her sleeping bag and lay down to go to sleep.

That ended the conversation.

The next morning Inuyasha woke up first feeling something off. He looked around and noticed the fox was missing. He gave a heavy sigh and pushed himself up following his scent out of the clearing. He wasn't through the next layer of trees before he heard his name called.

Looking up behind him he saw the fox sitting in a tree watching him. "We are safe for now, but there is a group not ten miles from us to the west which might cause trouble. It's a group of five low level demons." Kurama jumped down.

"Do they have shards?"

"I didn't sense Midoriko, but jewels might be allied against her, and I wouldn't be able to tell."

"Do you sense Midoriko anywhere back here?"

"Aside from Kagome?" Kurama frowned and fell silent. He shut his eyes and his power fled through the kingdom like a shockwave making Inuyasha shiver. He eventually came around to answering the question. "Yes. There is one in the far north, but it is very faint and I can barely feel it."

"We'll go that way then, but first, shouldn't we go back and figure out what's going on in that town?" Inuyasha asked pointing his thumb over his shoulder.

"I don't think it's that necessary. When we slept there, they tried to steal the jewel from Kagome, and I think they realized I was too much for them to handle. Who knows, maybe they thought poisoning me would keep us in town and they would be able to take us by surprise. Personally, I'm not willing to risk it." Kurama let out a long breath and ran his hand through his hair. He picked up his tail and ran his fingers through his fur.

Inuyasha nodded and leaned against a tree.

"Inuyasha," Kurama landed by his side. "I am sorry for disturbing you. It was never my intention."

"Why did you do it then?"

"Honesty, I have learned to put a high value on truth, even if the truth is hard to hear."

Inuyasha watched him for a minute, before nodding and heading back into camp. He picked up the green stick they had, and poked at the fire for a while, letting it fight off the morning air.


	9. Ants and Plans

Kurama ran his hand through his long hair. He let his eyes shut for a moment as he walked behind the group at a lazy stroll. Sango was the closest in front of him, and she kept glancing backwards as they moved.

"Is there something you would like to ask me Sango?" Kurama questioned as she looked back again. He plastered on a pleasant smile.

"It's nothing, just a silly question."

"Oh? What is that?"

"Did you ever find someone to love?" Sango asked quietly as she dropped back next to him.

Kurama blinked and frowned as he considered that question. "I never kept a romance alive if that is what you mean. I have loved before. I love my mother. I loved Midoriko. I have a special place for my current allies too, but it's a different kind of love."

"Why didn't you seek romance?" She questioned gently.

Kurama dropped his head and shrugged. "It was never something I made time for. I had plenty of flings, although I always made sure to keep from impregnating anyone. I had a deep relationship with Sesshomaru too, but I wouldn't consider it love as it was never anything completely serious on my side of things. Why do you ask?"

"I was thinking about how the demon societies I have known have a special place for love, and the ones who achieve love settle down, and typically don't bother humans any more. That led me to thinking about you and Sesshomaru. I don't think Sesshomaru has someone to love aside from maybe Rin, and he is reckless with humanity." She couldn't look at him. "You," her voice spiked, "well, I'm still making up my mind," a nervous laugh rolled over her, "but you are gentle with humanity in the future and I wanted to know if it was because you did have someone you love," she rushed, blushing as she spoke.

Silence hung between them like humid air. "And what about you Sango, do you love the monk?" Kurama questioned quietly. His voice was low like a cymbal's single droning note.

Sango blushed like a tomato and nodded. "You're an odd one out in this group. Kagome has Inuyasha, I have Miroku. Shippo and Kilala entertain each other, even if it's not in that sense."

"Yusuke has Keiko, Kuwabara has Yukina," he mused aloud, "Hiei has Mukuro," he added with a chuckle, "and again, I am the odd one out," he replied quietly. "I'm used to my position Sango. There is no need to worry about upsetting me with displaying your affections."

"Wait, you're the same way in your own time?" Kagome asked, shocked.

Kurama glanced ahead of the two of them to see Shippo was riding with Miroku and Kagome had dropped back to see what was going on. The boys glanced over their shoulders and paused as they realized how far behind Sango and Kurama were.

Kurama yawned and stretched aimlessly. They began to walk again approaching the next bend in the road.

Inuyasha stopped again and looked back at Kagome. Kurama was gone. The group looked around, confused. Inuyasha scoffed. "So much for getting an answer. Come on, let's get going. He can keep up."

The group rounded a bend into a town, carefully making their way across the river that defended it. The bridge, an expansive thing, had traders crowding it with boats pushed against the shore.

The group threaded through the town, carefully avoiding the majority of the massive population, and sticking near the outskirts.

"This would be a good place to stop for the night. We could replenish our food, and relax," Miroku offered. "They even have a public bath," He limply gestured towards a wooden sign. Villagers were edging around them still.

"No, we need to get through this. Something isn't right here," Kagome offered as she looked around. "I was just learning about the history of this area and I don't remember an affluent town here," Kagome warned quietly.

"I feel it too," Shippo shivered on her shoulder hugging her neck. "It's like we're being watched."

The group glanced around at the people, cautious as they continued through the village. The villagers ignored them, avoiding eye contact at all costs.

"This is the third village we've run into in this area that has been weird," Inuyasha huffed.

"We should see what the problem is. Maybe we can help." Miroku suggested as he looked around. A young woman was standing off to the side near a vendor. He caught her eyes. She smiled at him and bowed before scurrying off. "I'll go ask- Ah!" the boomerang smacked into his head.

"You're not going anywhere." Sango scolded. Shippo jumped over to Kagome's shoulder hiding in her backpack.

"We stick together and get through this. Whenever we separate, something bad happens." Inuyasha reminds them.

"What about Kurama?" Sango whispered, looking around for the fox.

"He'll be fine. He can meet us on the other side." Inuyasha pushed the group ahead.

"It's strange though, he just vanished out of thin air. What if something happened to him already?"

"No, he just didn't want to answer your question Kagome." Inuyasha scoffed folding his hands behind his head and looking towards the sky.

"The villagers are scared of something though. I'm going to go ask that vender over there," Miroku ducked the grab and walked up to the old man bowing in front of his wears. He greeted him with a prayer as the others looked on. As their conversation continued, the group waited impatiently.

A woman approached Inuyasha wearing a low bound outfit, she smiled seductively and offered him a drink. "Welcome outsider," she held up the drink to his lips as he glared at her.

"What the hell is this?" Inuyasha demanded stepping back and pushing the cup away. "What are you doing?"

"You're new to town, aren't you? It's customary to be greeted."

Two fit men approached the girls. Kilala began to growl at the approaching people. "Welcome stranger," the two men spoke in unison offering the girls an arm.

Kagome blushed and stepped back, her back coming flush with Inuyasha's.

The man smiled warmly. Suddenly, his head spun backwards and he crumpled in pieces to the ground.

The woman jumped for Inuyasha, and Miroku yelled in shock. The man in front of Sango lunged forward as well. The woman died within seconds of leaping forward and the glass spilled across the ground as Inuyasha drew his blade. Sango's boomerang fell atop the man's head. All of the merchants ran towards them as Sango threw her boomerang towards Miroku. He was on his back with the old man trying to suffocate him.

The boomerang swung through a hoard of people, who all burst into black blood and random bug parts as they fell to the ground. More still towards Kagome's side were sliced through like butter, cleaved in half from something invisible to them.

"That's Kurama's attack!" Inuyasha offered as he fought off his own hoard. Free, and with a clear way back, Miroku made it to the group.

"We have to get out of here." Miroku panted for breath. "Run for the far side of town!" He told the group.

"Keep together!" Sango urged pushing Kagome forward and smashing through people with her weapon. They bolted as a unit, Kagome staying beside Miroku.

When they made it out of the village on the far side, They stopped and looked backwards to see the villagers had stopped on the edge of the town, before crawling back towards their hiding holes, waiting for the next victims to pass through.

Dust covered their view and they looked around for the reason, but found none. The group continued forward. "Kurama?" Kagome called looking around. They hurried forward again until the air around them sighed in relief and birds began to chirp in the trees. "Kurama!" Kagome looked around again, waiting for a reply.

"I'm right here," Kurama whispered from behind her, between her and Miroku.

The group screamed and jumped in shock, landing away from him. He laughed and smiled offering a hand to Kagome as she glared daggers at him.

Shippo crawled out of the bag and jumped at him. "That was so scary! They were ants!" He squealed in fear snuggling into Kurama's chest.

"You could see passed their illusions?" Kurama questioned.

"Only when they were close to your energy," Shippo frowned.

"Yes, well," he shrugged. "Ant demons are very good at hiding their territory, however, they build anthill barriers which hide demon energy from view."

"How could we see them?" Sango questioned bluntly.

"They puppet the skin of humans to attract prey." Kurama offered calmly. "I'm not sure why it didn't hide Kilala and Shippo."

"Kilala and I only use energy when we need to."

"Still, the barrier must have some sort of limit for how much energy is needed for it to be active on the individual."

"So where did you go?" Inuyasha asked cautiously.

"I was in their plane. I could see them and they tried to restrain me, but that is a feat few have managed even in my time."

"Shouldn't we kill them?" Miroku questioned looking back over his shoulder. "A demon population that eats people and manipulates their skin to capture more?"

"There are thousands of ants in that hill, if not more." Kurama remarked shaking his head, "Taking them on would be senile. Let's just get as far away from here as we can."

"What about the humans they will kill?" Miroku pressed.

"Ants are relatively harmless. They typically eat corpses unless someone walks through their territory."'

"So we're just going to let them go?" Inuyasha demanded putting his sword over his shoulders. "What about that first town too. Were they ants?"

"No, they were something else. I don't know what was going on with that."

"How can you just leave these places untouched when you know that they are going to kill humans?" Miroku asked, staring back at the town.

"They aren't malicious. They are just trying to live." Kurama replied quietly. "If you came across a pack of deer and you weren't hungry, but they were cornered, would you kill them all?" Kurama asked walking away from the ant hill. He stopped once he was at the front of the group and turned back to watch Miroku struggle with the question.

"These are demons. They eat people," To Miroku that made a huge difference.

"We were overwhelmed even with the wind scar," Inuyasha remarked.

"We should still do what we can."

"And what? Create a mass genocide of ant demons because we can't stand to see them playing with human corpses? What would we do if we saw a random ant mound? Would we kill them then too because they were overthrowing the human population?" Kurama demanded angrily. "How about the wolf demons, or the mountain lions. Let's just go through and eradicate the whole world of all demons because they eat humans, all of them!"

"I'm sorry! Okay? I can't just ignore that they're sitting there waiting for humans to wander by so they can kill them."

"They're not. Those ants are living their own life, and even if they can't do it out in the open, they're getting by. Let them be."

The group walked in relative silence until Kurama pulled off Kagome's bow, cocked an arrow, and shot. Four crow-sized birds fell to the ground. He collected them and caught back up with the group, putting the arrows back in Kagome's quiver. He gutted the birds as they walked, or did what he could.

"Kurama, can you answer my question from earlier?" Kagome breached as they stopped to let him wash up. "Are you the odd one out in our time too?" Kagome asked nervously.

Kurama frowned. "We just spent all that time getting through the ant hill and you're concerned about my dating status?" Kurama questioned incredulously.

"Yeah," Kagome frowned.

"There are more people in my group than just those I mentioned. When I need someone to be at my hip, I can pick up Botan or Shizuru."

"But that's not love, just picking someone up for an event. That's not the emotional relationship that we're talking about." Sango crossed her arms over her chest.

Kurama laughed. "Being single is not a sin." He shook his head. He pulled the birds through the water a couple times.

"Look," Sango requested gently, "we want to learn more about you. Don't stop that by answering questions odd, just tell us."

"No, I'm not interested in relationships at the moment." Kurama strung up the birds. "So yes, in a way, I am an odd man out. At the same time, I choose to be that odd man out so it's not a problem for me."

They stopped to cook the birds as deep night came over the group. It wasn't until they were positioned out that Kurama breached conversation next. "We have a long way to go," Kurama mused as he stared off towards the distance.

Inuyasha nodded. "We'll get there though," he assured the fox.

"Can't we travel faster for a while?" Kurama asked softly.

Inuyasha frowned, "We typically run when there's danger, not just to get there faster."

"Inuyasha, we only have a month. If we want to make it to where I feel Midoriko, we're going to need longer than that at this pace."

Inuyasha frowned and watched the fox, "So what you're saying is there's nothing close enough for that to be enough time?"

"According to what I can feel, yes." The fox's yellow eyes steadied on Inuyasha, a grim face knitting his lips down. "It would take two months to get out there. It would be a four month trip."

"Can you and I get there if we run?"

"Sure, maybe in a week. I could make it in about five days if I didn't have to stop and rest," Kurama explained.

"Fine, I'll go with you, but if we get there and it's something major," Inuyasha warned, "we'll be missing our back up."

"Inuyasha, I am your back up." The fox smiled, his shoulders back and his chin up, gloating about it.

Inuyasha chuckled and turned to the group. "Alright, so Kurama here can sense a jewel way off north, but it's going to take us, walking like this, about two months, and we just don't have that kind of time."

"Inuyasha?" Kagome asked softly, "Are you leaving?" Kagome grabbed the straps of her over-full bag and tipped her head down, nervous.

"We'll be gone for about a few weeks, and in the meantime, Kagome, you will be searching around here for jewels, and then we can head back to the well together."

"Alright," Kagome dropped her head, kicking at the dirt road.

"Don't worry too much about us Kagome," Kurama teased. "I can keep him in tip top shape," he admits. "Unfortunately, we really should get going."

Kagome sighed and nodded. "Fine, we'll see you in a while then. Stay safe."

With that, Inuyasha and Kurama bolted off.

Kagome watched them go with a fist in front of her chest. "Do you think they will be alright?" Kagome asks softly.

"I'm sure they'll be fine, Kagome. If anyone can keep Inuyasha safe, it's Kurama." Shippo pipes up.

"I needed to hear that," Kagome nods. "Let's just hope they come back in one piece."

"In the meantime, we can keep looking around here for shards." Sango suggests. "Do you feel any of them close?"

Kagome frowns and reaches out with her senses. "Not really. I can't even feel the one they're after to tell you the truth. The closest one I feel is, that way." she points east.

"Then that's where we'll go." Sango nods and the group heads through the woods.


End file.
